Mastering the ap style rules for abbreviations bka content. For the style and spelling of words not found in ap or gpo, see websters new world college dictionary. Capitalize the full proper names of governmental agencies, departments, and offices. Of books, computer games, movies, operas, plays, poems, songs, television.
Abbreviate them when they appear in conjunction with the name of a city, town. Associated press style essentials this ap short guide is. Tarp stands for troubled asset relief program, so writing the tarp program was controversial is redundant. Although it is sold as a guide for reporters, it has become the leading reference for most forms of publicfacing. An a to z listing of guides to capitalization, abbreviation. Just what genuinely encouraged you to create crash course on ap style writing photography blogs journalism by tracey eaton. The department prefers bullets, but punctuate them per ap style. So, we would write about the world health organization or the red cross. Put the city name in capital letters, usually followed by the state, country. As the ap style book writes, names not commonly before the public should not be reduced to acronyms solely to save a few words.
The best ap style cheat sheet every writer needs free download. Dates when months are used with specific dates, abbreviate the month. Use abbreviations for degrees only when you need to include a list. The following guidance went out on the ap wire wednesday.
Sometimes its difficult to remember which rules are ap and which rules are remnants from years of college courses. Use abbreviations for degrees only when you need to include a list of credentials after a. Professional journalists and business communicators in the united states commonly write in associated press ap style. The associated press stylebook and briefing on media law official style. Aug, 2012 the associated press has compiled a list of u. Ap style holds that a few universally recognized abbreviations are required in some instances and some other abbreviations are acceptable depending on the context, but in general, as a writer, you should avoid having your writing appear as if its alphabet soup. Abbreviate names of states when used after the names of cities and towns, but. Abbreviations abbreviate junior or senior after a name, but dont use a comma. If youre new to news writing or switching from one to another, youll want to keep this ap cheat sheet handy and. The 2019 edition of the associated press stylebook and briefing on media law includes more than 200 new or revised entries, with chapters covering data journalism, business, fashion, food, religion and sports terms, as well as media law, news values, punctuation, social media, polls and surveys and a new chapter on health and science. Ap style state abbreviations differ from their corresponding united states postal service abbreviations, provided in parentheses. Editorial style guide fairfax county public schools.
Oct 30, 2015 remember back in college when you had to keep track of all the different ap rules for your student newspaper on top of the chicago manual of style for your academic classes. Fully revised and updated, this new edition contains more than 3,000 a to z entriesincluding more than 200 new onesdetailing the aps. The names of eight states are never abbreviated in datelines or text. Ap compiles us elections style guide associated press. She said cook county, illinois, was mayor daleys stronghold. The style of the associated press is the gold standard for news writing. In conjunction with the name of a city, town, village or military base in text. Of books, computer games, movies, operas, plays, poems, songs. My ap stylebook always lists examples in italics, so its difficult to see if italics are part of the. The 2019 edition of the associated press stylebook and briefing on media law includes more than 200 new or revised entries, with chapters covering data journalism, business, fashion, food, religion and sports terms, as well as media law, news values, punctuation, social media, polls and surveys and a new.
The office of communications uses the below writing style guide along with the associated press ap stylebook and websters dictionary as the standard for writing web content, employee communications, news releases, broadcast information, articles and other materials. Retain capitalization in referring to a specific body if the dateline or context makes the name of the nation, state, county, city, etc. Wellknown acronyms and common abbreviations of names should be. Associated press style essentials this ap short guide is modeled on one made available in the past by.
Associated press style cheat sheet compiled with assistance from online resources, including scribd, purdue university and towson university abbreviations and acronyms as a general rule, use only commonly recognized abbreviations. Ap is not done rocking the journalism world with style changes. Ap style also aims to avoid stereotypes and unintentionally offensive language. Remember back in college when you had to keep track of all the different ap rules for your student newspaper on top of the chicago manual of style for your academic classes.
This can be particularly tricky with the titles of major works, so heres a few rules to brush up on. Dont abbreviate if there isnt a city name before the state. To help them out, ive pulled together some of the most essential rules. In most instances, our style is based on the associated press ap stylebook online. Also use state abbreviations in conjunction with the name of a city, county, town, village or military base. All states are spelled out in the body of the text. Note that the state abbreviation is set off by commas before. Abbreviations are often desired in tabulations and certain types of technical writings. Abbreviate them when they appear in conjunction with the name of a city. Guard against following an acronym with a word that appears in the acronym itself. The ap stylebook will help you master the aps rules on grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviation, word and numeral usage, and when to use more than instead of over. This is intended as a quick rundown or cheat sheet. The ap style as its known in the trade is quite different from the new york times style or chicago manual of style. In a news story, can you start a sentence with an acronym.
Jan 25, 2011 7 thoughts on crash course on ap style zoe february 19, 20 at 6. Style manual and word usage guide kansas geological survey. This faq webpage from the ap is a great source of information on current issues of grammar, style, punctuation, abbreviations, and other style questions. What follows are summaries of some of the most common style rules.
Ap stylebook cannot be made available in any printed form to any other person, third party or affiliate, or used for cdrom publishing, fax on demand, audiotext, email, or any other electronic delivery service or forany other purpose than the posting of the ap stylebook on your internal computer system, without ap s prior written approval. Of course, use state abbreviations in conjunction with the name of a city, town, village or military base in most datelines. Neither means that the usual headlinestyle or titlestyle caps still apply, but the titlename is naked as far as quotes and italics are concerned. Follow these associated press guidelines for the u. Select the sentence free of errors in ap style for abbreviations in broadcast copy. Fairfax county public schools is a large school system. Sep 19, 2012 professional journalists and business communicators in the united states commonly write in associated press ap style. Associated press style provides guidelines for news writing.
Colon capitalize the first word after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence. Capitalize common nouns and their distinguishing modifiers in names of associations, societies, companies, streets, etc. All subsequent text references should just refer to the acronymabbreviation. In football, only walter camps selections through 1924, and the ap selections after that, are recognized. The associated press recognizes only one allamerica football and basketball team each year. Im searching my ap stylebook but cant find an answer. In this post, we will summarize all of the ap stylebook state abbreviations rules. The ap stylebook holds to the following guidelines.
The webs largest and most authoritative acronyms and abbreviations resource. Before we begin to enlist the abbreviations, it is mandatory for one to learn and garner information about what ap is, with a brief, supplementary note on the history of the same. If youd like a more visually appealing way to reference ap style state name abbreviations, save this map weve created with all the names you need. Ap style does not call for a comma before a conjunction in a simple series, but does allow it for complex series or where an integral element of the series requires a conjunction. The ap stylebook says state abbreviations are used in both datelines and in text. Does anyone know the associated press abbreviation for the word county. Ap stylebook online is a searchable, customizable resource for writers and editors. The associated press stylebook provides an az guide to issues such as capitalization, abbreviation, punctuation, spelling, numerals and many other questions of language usage. When speaking of the schools themselves in fairfax county, you would write. Ap style recommends spelling out state names in the body of stories effective may 1, 2014 and using abbreviations in datelines. Do not call anyone an allamerica selection unless he is listed on either the camp or ap roster.
Use the state abbreviations listed at the end of this section. Top 10 ap style guide 2016edits university of texas at. See datelines for guidelines on when a city name may stand alone in the body of a story. There are quite a few rules in the ap stylebook for state names and ap style state abbreviations. Its often used by news organizations, magazines, and web publications, but brands often use it to form the basis of their own style guides, too. Do not use the long form in one spot and the short form in the other. Capitalization avoid unnecessary capital letters avoid alphabet soup tons of abbreviations.
Mar, 2015 the ap stylebook, the buzzfeed style guide, the economist style guide, and the chicago manual of style all recommend hyphenating ebook, as well as most other e words such as ereader and ecommerce. A third reason why we capitalize in ap is for the names of books or movies. State abbreviations according to ap style gatehouse newsroom. Home ap style ap style composition titles the following guidelines are rules set out in the ap stylebook for ap style book titles, computer game titles, ap style movie titles, opera titles, play titles, poem titles, album titles, ap style song titles, radio and television titles, and the titles of lectures, speeches, and work of art. The associated press stylebook provides an az guide to issues such as capitalization, abbreviation, punctuation, spelling, numerals. Generally ap style omits periods in acronyms, unless doing so would spell an unrelated word. Put the city name in capital letters, usually followed by the state, country or. You will still use abbreviations in datelines, photo captions, lists, etc. Following is the breakdown between ap style and chicago style. The chicago manual of style online is the venerable, timetested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format.
Ap stylebook cannot be made available in any printed form to any other person, third party or affiliate, or used for cdrom publishing, fax on demand, audiotext, email, or any other electronic delivery service or forany other purpose than the posting of the ap stylebook on your internal computer system, without aps prior written approval. Ap stylebook, also known by its full name the associated press stylebook and briefing on media law, is an english grammar style and usage guide created by american journalists working for or connected with the associated press to standardize mass communication. The following quick reference is taken from the associated press stylebook and libel. Using a style manual ensures quality, clarity, and consistency in our publications. Abbreviate months with six or more letters if they are used with a specific date. Its mobile optimized so you can use it on your desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet.
Let me know what important rules ive missed, or if you see a mistake. Alaska, hawaii, idaho, iowa, maine, ohio, texas and utah. Get your the smart writers simple ap style cheat sheet guide now. Associated press style is to use dashes, not bullets, for lists that follow a colon. Effective may 1, the ap will spell out state names in the body of stories. The most common, such as nasa, fbi and cia, can be used on all references.
Using correct ap style for book, movie, and song titles. The atlantic hurricane is most likely to hit the east coast cities of jacksonville, florida, savannah, georgia, and charleston, south carolina. While relief was in sight after one more day of misery in the northeast, the south was forecast to stay hotter than usual at least through the end of the week. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Crash course on ap style writing visual storytelling. Its conceivable that over time, ebook may lose its hyphen. Top 10 ap style guide 2016edits university blog service.
Before you start in on a writing project for a client, be sure to ask them what style guide they use. All you need to know about titles in ap style gatehouse. Spiralbound book, updated each spring 2019 ap stylebook. Other references consulted in the preparation of the ap style book. For words that you cannot find in our ap style list, use the firstlisted abbreviation in websters new world dictionary.
According to the ap stylebook and its social media guidelines, the abbreviation app for application in describing a computer program that runs inside another service may be used on first reference. If the writer of your example sentence is following ap style, then 10 years later would be correct. However, italicized type could not be sent over associated press teletypes and isnt supported by the computer programs in use today. Sep 25, 2018 ensure that the name of the government author you use in the intext citation matches the name of the author in the reference list entry exactly.
She spent more than four years conducting the research for her book. This section can be used as a primer and a quick reference, not a replacement to the gpo or ap style books. With the ap stylebook in hand, you can learn how to write and edit with the clarity and professionalism for which they are famous. Search the worlds most comprehensive index of fulltext books. When talking about length of time in ap style, use a numeral for 10 and above. If people are unlikely to understand an abbreviation, then dont use it.
English is a tricky languageand how you write it can be even trickier. Use quotation marks around the titles of books, songs, television shows, computer games. Washington ap sweltering temperatures across half the country had people doing what they could to stay cool today. If you want to know all about the ap style state abbreviations, you have been a wise soul to click on this article. This can be particularly tricky with the titles of major works, so heres a few. Ensure that the name of the government author you use in the intext citation matches the name of the author in the reference list entry exactly. Ap style state abbreviations differ from their corresponding united states postal service. Formal titles in ap style should be capitalized when they immediately precede one or more names. The same goes for the following international cities and country abbreviations. The associated press style is the goto style for journalism and news writing. The fairfax county school board meets several times each month. Most of these examples were taken from the ap stylebook. After each bullet, capitalize the first letter and use periods at the end of each item. Find out what is the most common shorthand of county on.
To make navigating these specialty chapters even easier, the stylebook includes a comprehensive index. Some widely known abbreviations are required in certain situations, while others are. However, there are exceptions for large cities that stand alone in datelines. Instead, simply use the abbreviation the second time that you refer to the organization. It is the indispensable reference for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers, informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice. Ap stylebook, also known by its full name the associated press stylebook and briefing on. The following quick reference is taken from the associated press stylebook and. If this structure makes the connection between the entity and the abbreviation unclear, its best to just skip using the abbreviation. She read the new york times before she turned on the television to watch survivor. Ba, bs, bachelor of arts, bachelor of science ma, ms, master of arts, master of science edd, phd, doctor of education, doctor of philosophy mba, master of business administration do not add the word degree after an abbreviation of the degree or after the full name of the degree. In other words, do not use abbreviations or acronyms that your readers will. Jul 21, 2016 in ap style, you shouldnt follow the name of an organization with the abbreviation offset by parentheses or dashes. The following quick reference is taken from the associated press stylebook. The sba is committed to simplifying our message by using a standard style without jargon and unidentifiable acronyms.
Any state name may be condensed, however, to fit typographical requirements for tabular material. In these titles every noun and verb, as well as the first word of the title gets a capital letter. If a states name is standing alone or in conjunction with a city or town in your text, spell out the entire states name. An exception is that you can introduce an abbreviation for the government agency in the text if you will be referring to it. Fairfax county public schools, as the name of the school system, should always be written in initial caps. The best ap style cheat sheet every writer needs free. Most examples here are taken and condensed from these style books. Put commas after the day of the week, the month and the year. Its updated throughout the year and valuable onlineonly resources, including ask the editor, topical guides and pronunciation guide, expand on the print books guidance. To subscribe to the associated press stylebook online, or to find out about purchasing. This style manual and wordusage guide is designed to provide guidance to editors, proofreaders, and graphicarts and automatedcartography personnel, authors, and wordprocessors. The associated press stylebook and briefing on media law official style guide of the associated press, a notforprofit news agency thats been around since 1846. Books and magazines often italicize newspaper names as well as book titles and magazine names as part of their inhouse style.