AP Style Tutorial

Welcome to my guide to learning AP style. For this guide to be useful, you first will need a solid understanding of grammar rules within the English language. To brush up on your grammar skills, I recommend purchasing a copy of "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White.

Cornell professor William Strunk first published "The Elements" in 1918. No book has been as useful or as relevant for so long, and since the English language hasn't changed much, it is just as useful today.

My copy of "The Elements" was produced in 1979, six years before I was born. I found it on a bookshelf in my parents' basement when I was young and have referred to it ever since. The pages are worn and the cover and jacket are torn, but the words inside are still true!

While "The Elements" will provide you with a basic refresher of grammar rules, please recognize that everything in the book does not apply to AP style guidelines. "The Elements" style guide is applied in novel and essay writing. Many of the grammar rules in the book should be applied across all types of writing, but there definitely are differences when it comes to AP Style.

Since the goal of my guide is to help you learn AP style, I will, of course, be writing the entire thing in AP style rather than any other format. See if you can pick out the differences in the style as we go along!

Once you've read through "The Elements," you next will need a copy of "The AP Stylebook." During my journalism classes at Michigan State University, my professors often created reading assignments from "The AP Stylebook" and quizzed the class on the rules in the allotted pages.

During my undergraduate years, I probably read "The AP Stylebook" cover-to-cover at least nine times. On top of that, I referenced it daily to determine the correct style for military titles, state abbreviations, addresses or whatever else I was writing about for the student newspaper or class that day. I continue to reference the book constantly in my day-to-day writing.

I'm not going to tell you that you have to read the stylebook cover-to-cover, because you probably won't remember everything anyway. But it certainly does help to read through and get a grasp of the differences between AP style and traditional MLA format. The major differences will likely stick in your mind. As for the others - luckily, the stylebook is user-friendly!

So head on over to Amazon.com or your local bookstore and pick up a copy of "The AP Stylebook." Without it, this entire guide will be much less effective.

Don't want to buy it on Amazon? "The AP Stylebook" is available for purchase online at www.apstylebook.com.

Why is AP style necessary? Why can't newspapers just print their articles in the same format as novel writers and scholars? Wouldn't that make it much easier for everyone else?

It probably would be easier, but there is a legitimate as to why AP style was developed. In general, AP style is shorter, saving a character here and a character there.

Because newspapers used to have to be set on printing presses, shorter words were much easier to work with back in the day. Also, newspaper space is limited, so editors often found themselves searching for ways to make an entire story fit on a page. AP style grew out of these necessities.

Even though it may seem trivial to leave out a single character in places, recognize that those characters add up during the course of a 16- or 18-inch article. Because of the design programs used in newsrooms today, saving four characters may enable an editor to keep an entire additional line in a story. That, my friends, is less-than-trivial.

In "The Elements of Style," William Strunk Jr. writes "Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's." By that, he means to always add 's, no matter what. For example, following Strunk's rule, you would write:

The girls's house
Charles's house
The walruses's house

Well, not many walruses have houses, but you get the point.

In AP style, you would drop the second s if a plural or proper noun ends in the letter s. For example, here's the format in AP style:

The girls' house
Charles' house
The walruses' house

If the word ends in a consonant, include an 's. If the word ends in an s, only include an additional apostrophe, as in Charles' house. Leave the extra s off the end.

AP style allows for an exception when using singular nouns ending in s. Unless the following word begins with an s, the common noun should have an 's. These are the examples given in the 2005 AP Stylebook:

the hostess's invitation
the hostess' seat

In the first example, the noun is singular and is followed by a word that does not begin with the letter s. In the second example, the noun is singular, but is followed by a word that does, in fact, begin with the letter s. Therefore, the additional s is dropped.

The stylebook devotes more than an entire page to possessives. Be sure to check out all of the examples.

OK, let's put an end to the serial comma debate. In most writing styles, a comma does proceed a conjunction in a series. When using AP style, the comma directly in front of the conjunction is omitted.

For example:

Eggs, toast and coffee
Turkey, chicken or vegetables

I'm hungry. Can you tell?

OK, back on track. When considering serial commas, there are exceptions. Always use a comma in front of the conjunction in a complex series. The example from the 2005 stylebook:

The main points to consider are whether the athletes are skillful enough to compete, whether they have the stamina to endure the training, and whether they have the proper mental attitude.

Without the comma before the word and, this would probably be downright baffling! The additional comma helps to clear up any confusion.

Here is an easy rule: numbers.

Numbers from one to nine always are spelled out. If the number is above nine, always use the numeral.

The exception: if the number is the first word in a sentence, it is always spelled out.

Break it down:
One through nine: always spelled out
10 or more: use the numeral
At the beginning of the sentence: spell out

Examples:
She spent two days in the hospital.
He turned 29 yesterday.
Thirty-two years from now, this tree will be 10 feet tall.

Easy-peasy.

Drunk is used after the verb to be. Example:

The man was drunk.

Drunken is used most other times, including before nouns. For example, the term is always "drunken driver" and "drunken driving." Example:

The police officer stopped the drunken driver on DUI Alley.
The man was accused of drunken driving.

Questions? Leave them below.

Always give 110 percent to everything you write!

Just kidding. While it is a great rule, it is not the rule we are talking about in the percentage section.

This rule is another easy one: Always spell out the world percent.

This doesn't save space, so intuitively it doesn't make sense, but that's the way it goes.

Examples:
She save 20 percent.
He got 84 percent of the questions correct.

Percent is one word. Do not split it in the middle. Per cent does not refer to a fraction, or percentage of a whole. % is a symbol, not a word, and to the AP trained eye it looks wonky.

It's an easy rule. Learn it, love it.

When a title precedes a name, it should be abbreviated.
Examples:

Prof. Michael Sherman
Gov. Steven Sheridan
Dr. Jennifer O'Reilly

Note that the preceding title is both capitalized and abbreviated. If the titles follows the person's name, however, the title would not be capitalized, nor abbreviated. Examples:

Michael Sherman, professor of radiology...
Jennifer O'Reilly, a medical doctor at St. Joseph West...

While these formats, are correct, they are not ideal. Whenever possible, use the titles in front of the names and cut down on the number of words you need to use. Keep it simple, silly!

**Bonus note: Dr. is only to be used with medical doctors. For someone who has earned a doctorate of theology, for example, Ph.D., would be the proper initials. However, in AP style, the preferred nomenclature would read like this: Sarah Stevenson, who holds a doctorate in theology,...