I can't lie, AP is a totally different beast than any other writing style I have dealt with. It isn't easy and at times, it isn't fun! That being said, here are some of my favorite and valuable things I learned from taking a deep-dive into the AP Stylebook:
The Internet- AP finally gave in to peer pressure by lowercasing and making "website" into one word, but they're still adamant that the Internet and the Web always be uppercase. Doesn't make sense to me but I will go with it.
State Abbreviations: Luckily, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah are never abbreviated. That's easy enough to remember... I guess. However, the rest of the 50 not only don't get the same treatment, but they don't even use the standard Postal Service abbreviations. Instead of "CA," it's "Calif." and "WY" is "Wyo." Memorizing these may be difficult but it is difficult enough for me to remember to check the stylebook.
OK. OK?- None of this "okay" business. It's OK, OK'd, OK'ing and OKs. And.. Yeah, it's going to look like you're shouting. It's OK.
More than vs Over- There are probably more than the average number of people getting this one wrong. "More than" refers to numbers. For example: "More than 80,000 people showed up to Coachella this year." "Over" refers to spatial relationships like, "Many hipsters flew from the East Coast over the Rockies to get to the music festival in Indio, Calif."
Toward and Anyway- Add an "s" to the end of these words and prepare for the wrath of every American copy editor's red pen. This is a personal pet peeve of mine, so it was exciting for me to see the rule in writing.
Champagne- This one made little sense to me but grab the bottle and check the label. If it's from the Champagne region of France, always capitalize. If made elsewhere, call it "sparkling wine." Yeah, because we all know the many regions of France so well.
No comments:
Post a Comment