February 01, 2016

5 Five AP Style Rules You Probably Forgot

Tanner Hawkins – Associate

If you work in or with the media, you know the importance of the almighty AP Stylebook. It’s pages and pages of interesting facts, clarifications and obscure rules, but that’s why we love it. You may have forgotten a few of these along the way, so here’s a friendly reminder of some of the most common mistakes made.

Hyphens

According to the AP Stylebook, “hyphens are joiners. Use them to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or more words.” The main purpose of the hyphen is to clarify a subject by combining the adjectives describing a noun, like hard-day’s work and part-time worker. Also use it for prefixes and suffixes, numerals and ratios. However, don’t use one when your adjective ends with –ly, such as “happily married man.”

Numerals

Confusing to many people, the AP Style rule for numerals can be summed up relatively simply: numbers one through nine are written out and numbers 10+ are expressed through figures.

Exception alert! Never begin a sentence with a figure, even if the numeral is under 10. Always spell it out if it’s the first word: “Fifty people showed up to the concert.”

The Oxford Comma

Perhaps the most notorious AP Style rule of all – leave out the Oxford comma. Why, you ask? A brief history lesson: newspapers used to be printed on, get this, paper. And this paper was a physical sheet with physical limits. One easy way to save space – take out every comma preceding “and” when listing things. (Love this whole paragraph)

a.m./p.m.

There are so many variations of this in personal use. People will use 8a, 8A, 8AM, 8am and dozens more combinations. Just remember, there are always periods in between the two characters and always a space between the time (which is always expressed with a figure) and a.m./p.m.

Wi-Fi

Maybe you’re trying to write about free available wireless Internet access at your client’s location, or describing a piece of technology that requires Wi-Fi. It may not seem like a huge issue, and may not even get noticed, but consistency is what makes AP Style important. By spelling it the same way every time, your writing will have continuity that readers can rely on. Always remember to separate the two syllables with a hyphen, and both the “W” and “F” are capitalized.

You may love some of these standards, you may hate them, but rules are rules and if following AP Style is important to you, then make a mental note to remember these next time you’re writing. And perhaps most importantly of all, if you’re uncertain, take the time to check your handy AP Stylebook.

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