Even a Virtuoso Needs Sheet Music

Without a doubt the most useful part of the AP Stylebook as far as I'm concerned is the remarkably detailed, unequivocal grammar rules. In so many cases, even the most advanced textbooks leave some room for interpretation of fail to be truly decisive. The fact that this book is wholly focused around a single specific style leaves no room for ambiguity. Of course, languages evolve constantly to meet the needs and behaviors of the cultures that create and utilize them. That said, anyone with any hope of becoming a professional writer, especially one with a focus on technical or journalistic writing, can benefit greatly from a clear foundation on which he or she can rely.

There are several that I've been inadvertently violating for a long time and a few of which I was completely unaware. I've been misusing serial commas, for example, operating under the assumption that the second to last in a list also requires its own comma. I like to think of myself as a fairly articulate individual, but the real intricacies of any language are difficult for anyone to completely master, so having a truly comprehensive guide is a tremendous asset.

This was another example found in my workplace, on a piece of paperwork relating to the linesets. The linesets are the counter-weighted ropes connected to a series of metal pipes called battens suspended from the ceiling on which “soft goods” (curtains, screens, etc.) are hung. The key problem, however, is that they are installed in the Austad AuDitorium, not the Austad AuTitorium, which sounds to me like a particularly grandiose gentleman's club.