{"id":143,"date":"2022-08-20T21:45:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-20T21:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/?post_type=chapter&p=143"},"modified":"2024-02-13T02:23:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T02:23:41","slug":"ap-style-basics","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/chapter\/ap-style-basics\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 13: AP Style Basics","rendered":"Chapter 13: AP Style Basics"},"content":{"raw":"
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Associated Press style basics<\/h1>\r\n

The basics of Associated Press style from Boston University's College of Communications.<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_144\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"300\"]\"Old Image by M. H. from Pixabay[\/caption]\r\n

by\u00a0Leighton Walter Kille<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>|\u00a0May 7, 2009 - On The Journalist's Resource<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\nThe Associated Press was founded more than 160 years ago and now has thousands of employees working in more than a hundred countries for a readership that numbers in the millions. AP style is designed to address the challenges of the organization\u2019s large size and readership. It had to be easy for reporters and editors to use and also produce stories that are clear and concise.\r\n\r\nTo achieve these goals, The\u00a0Associated Press Stylebook<\/a>\u00a0is intentionally compact and direct, giving up comprehensiveness in exchange for brevity. While this can leave many reporters\u2019 questions unanswered, the problems most frequently encountered are addressed.\r\n\r\nThis article is a summary of AP style. Below you\u2019ll find information on numbers, time and dates, locations, phone numbers, punctuation, capitalization and titles, and the Internet. This isn\u2019t an exhaustive list, but it will get you started.\r\n\r\nNumbers<\/strong>\r\n\r\nOne through nine are spelled out, 10 and above are figures (Arabic numerals). If a sentence begins with a number, it should be spelled out or the sentence rewritten. The exception is a numeral that identifies a calendar year. Use figures in tables.\r\n\r\nPercentages: Use the % sign when paired with a number, with no space, in most cases (a change in 2019):\u00a0Average hourly pay rose 3.1% from a year ago; her mortgage rate is 4.75%; about 60% of the class passed; he won 56.2% of the vote.<\/span>\u00a0Use figures:\u00a01%, 4 percentage points<\/span>.\r\n

\u2022 For amounts less than 1%, precede the decimal with a zero: The cost of living rose 0.6%.<\/span><\/div>\r\n
\u2022 Spell out zero percent<\/span>:\u00a0She said he has a zero percent chance of winning; they are offering zero percent financing<\/span>.<\/div>\r\n
\u2022 At the start of a sentence: Try to avoid this construction. If it\u2019s necessary to start a sentence with a percentage, spell out both: Eighty-nine percent of sentences don\u2019t have to begin with a number.<\/span><\/div>\r\nMillion, billion: Always use figures and spell out the words\u00a0million<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0billion<\/em>.\r\n\r\nTime and dates<\/strong>\r\n\r\nMonth, day: Use numerals for days without st, nd, rd or th and abbreviate the months August through February when used with a date: \u201cFeb. 12 was particularly cold.\u201d Do not abbreviate the months March through July: \u201cMarch 12 was rainy.\u201d Always spell out months with no dates: \u201cOctober is her favorite month.\u201d Do not separate months and years with a comma: \u201cHe left for Bhutan in October 1937.\u201d Set off years with commas when there is a specific date: \u201cThe mortgage was paid off April 1, 1998, and they threw a party that night.\u201d\r\n\r\nTime: Use lowercase a.m. and p.m., with periods. Always use figures, with a space between the time and the a.m. or p.m.: \u201cBy 6:30 a.m. she was long gone.\u201d If it\u2019s an exact hour, no \u201c:00\u2033 is required. If a time range is entirely in the morning or evening, use a.m. or p.m. only once: \u201c6:30-10 p.m.\u201d If it goes from the morning into the evening (or vice versa), you need both: \u201c10 a.m.-2 p.m.\u201d\r\n\r\nCities and states<\/strong>\r\n\r\nDatelines: Put the city name in capital letters, generally followed by the state or country, and then a long dash. Certain large cities can stand alone; see the AP Stylebook for a listing.\r\n\r\nState names: When used on their own, spell these out: \u201cMassachusetts is on the Atlantic Ocean.\u201d When there\u2019s a city or party affiliation, abbreviate: \u201cCambridge, Mass., is a hip place\u201d; \u201cD-Mass.\u201d There are eight states that are never abbreviated: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. Two-letter forms of state names are used only with zip codes: \u201cSend mail to 79 JFK St., Cambridge, MA 02138.\u201d\r\n\r\nPhone numbers<\/strong>\r\n\r\nArea codes and country codes get no special treatment and aren\u2019t preceded by a 1 or plus sign. Use hyphens between groups of numbers: \u201cHe dialed 617-123-4567 and crossed his fingers.\u201d\r\n\r\nPunctuation<\/strong>\r\n\r\nHyphen: Hyphenate compound adjectives only if required for clarity: \u201cfastest-growing company\u201d; \u201chigh-level discussion.\u201d Don\u2019t use hyphens with commonly understood terms, adverbs that end in\u00a0ly<\/em>\u00a0and between figures and units of measure: \u201cgreatly exaggerated claims\u201d; \u201c2 percent rule.\u201d Do not use a hyphen with a compound modifier after the noun: \u201cThe driver was well paid.\u201d\r\n\r\nDash:\u00a0There are many different situations when you might use a dash. Whatever the situation, put a space on both sides of a dash in all uses except sports agate summaries.\r\n
\u2022 Use dashes to denote an abrupt change in thought in a sentence or an emphatic pause: Through her long reign, the queen and her family have adapted \u2014 usually skillfully \u2014 to the changing taste of the time.<\/span>\u00a0But avoid overuse of dashes to set off phrases when commas would suffice.<\/div>\r\n
\u2022 When a phrase that otherwise would be set off by commas contains a series of words that must be separated by commas, use dashes to set off the full phrase: He listed the qualities \u2014 intelligence, humor, conservatism, independence \u2014 that he liked in an executive.<\/span><\/div>\r\n
\u2022 For datelines (when you write the story from a place outside where it is being published): NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The city is broke.<\/span><\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\nComma: In lists of three or more items, do not use a comma before the conjunction: \u201cThe recipe called for flour, butter and foie gras.\u201d Exceptions are made if the elements in the series are complex phrases or if the series includes an element with a conjunction: \u201cHe doesn\u2019t eat anything but pizza, Twizzlers, and macaroni and cheese.\u201d Use a comma to set off a person\u2019s town of residence, age and other such information: \u201cTom Menino, Boston, was a popular speaker\u201d; \u201cJean Dupont, 32, was released yesterday.\u201d\r\n\r\nPeriod: Use only one space after the end of a sentence. Period.\r\n\r\nColon: Capitalize the first word after a colon only if it\u2019s followed by a complete sentence. Colons go outside quotes unless they\u2019re part of the quoted material.\r\n\r\nApostrophe: An apostrophe indicates possession. Add an\u00a0\u2018s\u00a0<\/em>to all single nouns and names, even if they already end in an\u00a0s<\/em>: \u201cMy boss\u2019s vacation begins tomorrow.\u201d For singular proper names ending in s, use only an apostrophe: \u201cKansas\u2019 crisis.\u201d For plurals of a single letter, add an apostrophe and an s: \u201cMind your p\u2019s and q\u2019s,\u201d \u201cthe Oakland A\u2019s.\u201d Do not use apostrophes for decades or acronyms: the 1990s, CDs.\r\n\r\nQuotation marks: Periods and commas go inside quote marks: \u201c\u2018Reginald, your hairstyle makes me nervous,\u2019 she said.\u201d The position of dashes, semicolons, exclamation and question marks depends on what\u2019s being questioned or exclaimed: \u201cWas she right to say, \u2018Your shoes are a joke\u2019?\u201d\r\n\r\nParentheses: AP style suggests avoiding parentheses when possible, and instead rewriting text or using dashes or commas to set off the information. If parentheses are required the rules are: If the parenthetical is a complete, independent sentence, place the period inside the parentheses; if not, the period goes outside.\r\n\r\nCapitalization and titles<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWorks: Things such as books, movies, paintings and so on get title-style capitalization and quotation marks: \u201cHe couldn\u2019t put down \u2018The AP Stylebook'\u201d; \u201cHer favorite album was \u2018Love Is Hell.'\u201d\r\n\r\nIndividuals: Capitalize a person\u2019s title only if it precedes his or her name and isn\u2019t modified: \u201cChief Executive Officer Leon Redbone\u201d; \u201cLeon Redbone, chief executive officer of Swizzle Stick, Inc.\u201d\r\n\r\nEverything else: When in doubt, use sentence-style capitalization and roman type. This applies to website buttons, press releases and most PowerPoint decks.\r\n\r\nThe Internet<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe words\u00a0Internet<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Web<\/em>\u00a0are capitalized: \u201cShe spent a lot of time on the Web\u201d; \u201cTheir Internet-access speed was excellent.\u201d Other Web-related terms have a variety of treatments:\u00a0website<\/em>,\u00a0Web page, Web 2.0.\u00a0<\/em>Note that AP adjusts its style to reflect current usage \u2014 not long ago they considered\u00a0Web site\u00a0<\/em>to be two words, but now recommend\u00a0website<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 and given the fast-changing nature of the Web, such adaptations are certain to continue.\r\n\r\nEmail: One word, no hyphen. Related words are generally hyphenated: e-reader, e-commerce.\r\n\r\nURLs: In general-purpose text, addresses are given in the same typeface as the text in which they appear: \u201cThe address is https:\/\/journalistsresource.org.\u201d\r\n\r\nWebsite names: Use title-style capitalization and roman type: \u201cHe loves the Journalist\u2019s Resource.\u201d\r\n\r\nTags: capitalization, punctuation<\/em>\r\n\r\n
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About The Author<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Leighton Walter Kille<\/h4>\r\n
Research editor, Journalist's Resource. Formerly assistant arts editor at the Boston Globe, senior editor of the Boston Phoenix (RIP), managing editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian (also RIP) and managing editor at the South American Explorer (still with us).<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\nThis work is licensed under a\u00a0Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.","rendered":"
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Associated Press style basics<\/h1>\n

The basics of Associated Press style from Boston University’s College of Communications.<\/h2>\n
\"Old
Image by M. H. from Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by\u00a0Leighton Walter Kille<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>|\u00a0May 7, 2009 – On The Journalist’s Resource<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Associated Press was founded more than 160 years ago and now has thousands of employees working in more than a hundred countries for a readership that numbers in the millions. AP style is designed to address the challenges of the organization\u2019s large size and readership. It had to be easy for reporters and editors to use and also produce stories that are clear and concise.<\/p>\n

To achieve these goals, The\u00a0Associated Press Stylebook<\/a>\u00a0is intentionally compact and direct, giving up comprehensiveness in exchange for brevity. While this can leave many reporters\u2019 questions unanswered, the problems most frequently encountered are addressed.<\/p>\n

This article is a summary of AP style. Below you\u2019ll find information on numbers, time and dates, locations, phone numbers, punctuation, capitalization and titles, and the Internet. This isn\u2019t an exhaustive list, but it will get you started.<\/p>\n

Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

One through nine are spelled out, 10 and above are figures (Arabic numerals). If a sentence begins with a number, it should be spelled out or the sentence rewritten. The exception is a numeral that identifies a calendar year. Use figures in tables.<\/p>\n

Percentages: Use the % sign when paired with a number, with no space, in most cases (a change in 2019):\u00a0Average hourly pay rose 3.1% from a year ago; her mortgage rate is 4.75%; about 60% of the class passed; he won 56.2% of the vote.<\/span>\u00a0Use figures:\u00a01%, 4 percentage points<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 For amounts less than 1%, precede the decimal with a zero: The cost of living rose 0.6%.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 Spell out zero percent<\/span>:\u00a0She said he has a zero percent chance of winning; they are offering zero percent financing<\/span>.<\/div>\n
\u2022 At the start of a sentence: Try to avoid this construction. If it\u2019s necessary to start a sentence with a percentage, spell out both: Eighty-nine percent of sentences don\u2019t have to begin with a number.<\/span><\/div>\n

Million, billion: Always use figures and spell out the words\u00a0million<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0billion<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Time and dates<\/strong><\/p>\n

Month, day: Use numerals for days without st, nd, rd or th and abbreviate the months August through February when used with a date: \u201cFeb. 12 was particularly cold.\u201d Do not abbreviate the months March through July: \u201cMarch 12 was rainy.\u201d Always spell out months with no dates: \u201cOctober is her favorite month.\u201d Do not separate months and years with a comma: \u201cHe left for Bhutan in October 1937.\u201d Set off years with commas when there is a specific date: \u201cThe mortgage was paid off April 1, 1998, and they threw a party that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time: Use lowercase a.m. and p.m., with periods. Always use figures, with a space between the time and the a.m. or p.m.: \u201cBy 6:30 a.m. she was long gone.\u201d If it\u2019s an exact hour, no \u201c:00\u2033 is required. If a time range is entirely in the morning or evening, use a.m. or p.m. only once: \u201c6:30-10 p.m.\u201d If it goes from the morning into the evening (or vice versa), you need both: \u201c10 a.m.-2 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cities and states<\/strong><\/p>\n

Datelines: Put the city name in capital letters, generally followed by the state or country, and then a long dash. Certain large cities can stand alone; see the AP Stylebook for a listing.<\/p>\n

State names: When used on their own, spell these out: \u201cMassachusetts is on the Atlantic Ocean.\u201d When there\u2019s a city or party affiliation, abbreviate: \u201cCambridge, Mass., is a hip place\u201d; \u201cD-Mass.\u201d There are eight states that are never abbreviated: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. Two-letter forms of state names are used only with zip codes: \u201cSend mail to 79 JFK St., Cambridge, MA 02138.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phone numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Area codes and country codes get no special treatment and aren\u2019t preceded by a 1 or plus sign. Use hyphens between groups of numbers: \u201cHe dialed 617-123-4567 and crossed his fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Punctuation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hyphen: Hyphenate compound adjectives only if required for clarity: \u201cfastest-growing company\u201d; \u201chigh-level discussion.\u201d Don\u2019t use hyphens with commonly understood terms, adverbs that end in\u00a0ly<\/em>\u00a0and between figures and units of measure: \u201cgreatly exaggerated claims\u201d; \u201c2 percent rule.\u201d Do not use a hyphen with a compound modifier after the noun: \u201cThe driver was well paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dash:\u00a0There are many different situations when you might use a dash. Whatever the situation, put a space on both sides of a dash in all uses except sports agate summaries.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Use dashes to denote an abrupt change in thought in a sentence or an emphatic pause: Through her long reign, the queen and her family have adapted \u2014 usually skillfully \u2014 to the changing taste of the time.<\/span>\u00a0But avoid overuse of dashes to set off phrases when commas would suffice.<\/div>\n
\u2022 When a phrase that otherwise would be set off by commas contains a series of words that must be separated by commas, use dashes to set off the full phrase: He listed the qualities \u2014 intelligence, humor, conservatism, independence \u2014 that he liked in an executive.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 For datelines (when you write the story from a place outside where it is being published): NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The city is broke.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Comma: In lists of three or more items, do not use a comma before the conjunction: \u201cThe recipe called for flour, butter and foie gras.\u201d Exceptions are made if the elements in the series are complex phrases or if the series includes an element with a conjunction: \u201cHe doesn\u2019t eat anything but pizza, Twizzlers, and macaroni and cheese.\u201d Use a comma to set off a person\u2019s town of residence, age and other such information: \u201cTom Menino, Boston, was a popular speaker\u201d; \u201cJean Dupont, 32, was released yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Period: Use only one space after the end of a sentence. Period.<\/p>\n

Colon: Capitalize the first word after a colon only if it\u2019s followed by a complete sentence. Colons go outside quotes unless they\u2019re part of the quoted material.<\/p>\n

Apostrophe: An apostrophe indicates possession. Add an\u00a0\u2018s\u00a0<\/em>to all single nouns and names, even if they already end in an\u00a0s<\/em>: \u201cMy boss\u2019s vacation begins tomorrow.\u201d For singular proper names ending in s, use only an apostrophe: \u201cKansas\u2019 crisis.\u201d For plurals of a single letter, add an apostrophe and an s: \u201cMind your p\u2019s and q\u2019s,\u201d \u201cthe Oakland A\u2019s.\u201d Do not use apostrophes for decades or acronyms: the 1990s, CDs.<\/p>\n

Quotation marks: Periods and commas go inside quote marks: \u201c\u2018Reginald, your hairstyle makes me nervous,\u2019 she said.\u201d The position of dashes, semicolons, exclamation and question marks depends on what\u2019s being questioned or exclaimed: \u201cWas she right to say, \u2018Your shoes are a joke\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

Parentheses: AP style suggests avoiding parentheses when possible, and instead rewriting text or using dashes or commas to set off the information. If parentheses are required the rules are: If the parenthetical is a complete, independent sentence, place the period inside the parentheses; if not, the period goes outside.<\/p>\n

Capitalization and titles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Works: Things such as books, movies, paintings and so on get title-style capitalization and quotation marks: \u201cHe couldn\u2019t put down \u2018The AP Stylebook’\u201d; \u201cHer favorite album was \u2018Love Is Hell.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Individuals: Capitalize a person\u2019s title only if it precedes his or her name and isn\u2019t modified: \u201cChief Executive Officer Leon Redbone\u201d; \u201cLeon Redbone, chief executive officer of Swizzle Stick, Inc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everything else: When in doubt, use sentence-style capitalization and roman type. This applies to website buttons, press releases and most PowerPoint decks.<\/p>\n

The Internet<\/strong><\/p>\n

The words\u00a0Internet<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Web<\/em>\u00a0are capitalized: \u201cShe spent a lot of time on the Web\u201d; \u201cTheir Internet-access speed was excellent.\u201d Other Web-related terms have a variety of treatments:\u00a0website<\/em>,\u00a0Web page, Web 2.0.\u00a0<\/em>Note that AP adjusts its style to reflect current usage \u2014 not long ago they considered\u00a0Web site\u00a0<\/em>to be two words, but now recommend\u00a0website<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 and given the fast-changing nature of the Web, such adaptations are certain to continue.<\/p>\n

Email: One word, no hyphen. Related words are generally hyphenated: e-reader, e-commerce.<\/p>\n

URLs: In general-purpose text, addresses are given in the same typeface as the text in which they appear: \u201cThe address is https:\/\/journalistsresource.org.\u201d<\/p>\n

Website names: Use title-style capitalization and roman type: \u201cHe loves the Journalist\u2019s Resource.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tags: capitalization, punctuation<\/em><\/p>\n

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About The Author<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Leighton Walter Kille<\/h4>\n
Research editor, Journalist’s Resource. Formerly assistant arts editor at the Boston Globe, senior editor of the Boston Phoenix (RIP), managing editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian (also RIP) and managing editor at the South American Explorer (still with us).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

This work is licensed under a\u00a0Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"menu_order":13,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-143","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/143\/revisions\/181"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/143\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}