✍️Newswriting Unit 5 – Associated Press Style and Grammar

AP Style Basics

• AP Style is a standardized way of writing for news media developed by the Associated Press
• Aims to ensure consistency, clarity, and brevity in news writing across different publications and platforms
• Covers a wide range of topics including grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and specific terminology
• Regularly updated to reflect changes in language and society (latest edition released in 2022)
• Widely adopted by newspapers, magazines, and online news outlets in the United States and beyond
• Also used in public relations, corporate communications, and other professional writing contexts
• Mastering AP Style is essential for aspiring journalists and news writers to produce professional-quality content

Grammar Fundamentals

• Subject-verb agreement ensures the subject and verb match in number and person (singular subject with singular verb, plural subject with plural verb)
• Proper use of pronouns helps maintain clarity and avoid confusion
  • Use "who" for people and "that" or "which" for things and animals
  • Ensure pronouns agree with their antecedents in number, gender, and person
• Active voice is preferred over passive voice for clarity and conciseness (active: "The dog chased the ball," passive: "The ball was chased by the dog")
• Avoid using jargon, slang, or overly complex language to ensure accessibility for a wide audience
• Use strong, specific verbs to convey action and keep writing engaging
• Maintain parallel structure when listing items or ideas to improve readability and clarity
• Ensure modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) are placed correctly to avoid confusion or unintended meaning

Punctuation and Formatting

• Use a single space after a period, not two spaces
• Commas should be used to separate elements in a series, but no comma before the final "and" (serial comma) unless needed for clarity
• Use em dashes (—) to indicate a break in thought or to set off parenthetical information, with no spaces before or after the dash
• Quotation marks should be double, with periods and commas placed inside the closing quotation mark
• Use semicolons to separate independent clauses or items in a complex list
• Avoid using exclamation points, as they are considered unprofessional in news writing
• Use italics for book titles, movie titles, and names of newspapers and magazines; use quotation marks for article titles, chapter titles, and TV show episodes

Writing Numbers and Dates

• Spell out numbers one through nine; use numerals for 10 and above
  • Exceptions: Always use numerals for ages, dates, times, percentages, and measurements
• Spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence, or rephrase the sentence to avoid starting with a number
• Use numerals for all percentages, with the word "percent" spelled out (5 percent, not 5%)
• Dates should be written in the format of month, day, year (January 1, 2023)
  • Abbreviate months with more than five letters (except for March, April, May, June, and July) when followed by a date (Jan. 15, 2023)
• Times should be written in numerals, with "a.m." and "p.m." lowercase and preceded by a space (9:30 a.m., not 9:30AM)
• Spell out numbers in casual expressions (e.g., "a thousand times," "one in a million")

Abbreviations and Acronyms

• Avoid abbreviations in general, except for those that are widely recognized (FBI, CIA, NASA)
• Spell out the full name on first reference, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses; use the abbreviation for subsequent references (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a new satellite. NASA officials said...)
• Use periods for two-letter abbreviations (U.S., U.N.), but not for longer abbreviations (FBI, CIA)
• Avoid abbreviations in headlines, except for those that are universally recognized
• Use "Dr." as a title before the name of a person with a medical degree; do not use it for individuals with other doctoral degrees
• Abbreviate titles such as "Gov.," "Rep.," and "Sen." before a person's name, but spell out the title if it appears after the name or stands alone

Capitalization Rules

• Capitalize proper nouns, including names of people, places, organizations, and brands
• Capitalize titles when they precede a person's name (President Joe Biden), but lowercase when they follow the name or stand alone (Joe Biden, the president)
• Capitalize the first word and all other principal words in titles of books, movies, articles, and other works
  • Articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (and, but, or), and prepositions of three letters or fewer are not capitalized unless they are the first or last word of the title
• Capitalize names of religions, deities, religious texts, and religious holidays (Christianity, God, the Bible, Christmas)
• Capitalize names of nationalities, races, and ethnicities (American, Black, Hispanic)
• Lowercase seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) and compass directions (north, south, east, west) unless they are part of a proper name (North Carolina, West Coast)

Citing Sources and Attribution

• Attribution is crucial in news writing to maintain credibility and transparency
• Use "said" as the default verb for attribution; avoid using "claimed," "alleged," or similar verbs that imply doubt or uncertainty
• Attribute information to specific sources whenever possible, rather than using vague terms like "officials" or "experts"
• Use "according to" when citing information from a document, report, or other written source
• When quoting a source directly, use the exact words and punctuation, and enclose the quote in double quotation marks
• If a quote is longer than a few sentences, use a block quote format, indenting the entire quote without quotation marks
• Clearly distinguish between facts, opinions, and analysis in your writing, and attribute opinions and analysis to their sources

Common AP Style Pitfalls

• Avoid using "over" when referring to numbers; use "more than" instead (more than 100 people, not over 100 people)
• Use "compared with" when pointing out similarities, and "compared to" when emphasizing differences
• Use "among" when referring to three or more people or things, and "between" for two people or things
• Avoid using "they" as a singular pronoun; instead, use "he or she" or rewrite the sentence to avoid the pronoun altogether
• Use "that" for essential clauses and "which" for nonessential clauses
  • Essential: The car that I bought last year is red.
  • Nonessential: The car, which I bought last year, is red.
• Avoid using "while" to mean "although" or "whereas," as it can create confusion; use "while" only to refer to simultaneous events
• Use "since" to refer to a specific time in the past, and "because" to indicate causation