AP Style Flashcards
When are digits always used?
D-MA(2)PS(2)
Date/X (midnt/noon)
Money (cents)
Addresses
Ages 6-year-old girl/girl is 6 years old
Percent Use w/o space: Pay rose 3.1%; 4 percentage points.
For amts < 1%, precede the decimal w/ zero: The cost of living rose 0.6%.
If casual: a zero percent chance of a date
12% to 15%, 12%-15% and between 12% and 15% (Note percent signs both X.)
Size/dimension 5-foot-6 man; the rug is 9 feet by 12 feet; 9-by-12 rug; 9-inch rug
Speed
How do you punctuate Jr?
Bob Jr.
No comma and period.
How do you punctuate a singular common n ending in s?
lass
Add ’s, even when the following word begins with an s
the virus’s reach, the virus’s spread; the witness’s answer, the witness’s story
How do you punctuate a singular proper noun ending in s?
only an apostrophe
Achilles’ heel
If month, day, and year are used?
March 10, 1990, or Oct. 14, 1995.
(Set off year w/ comma.)
Abbrev all months longer than 6 letters (7 total).
If Month and a year are used?
Spell out the month (no matter how long).
August 2022
If month and day are used?
MD (abbreviate)
Abbreviate the month
Dates should never have “st, nd, rd, or th.”
Oct. 3
There is no 12, noon/midnt
How do you write am/pm?
midday?
on the hour?
With periods, a.m./p.m.
noon/midnight (no 12s)
Use only the digits when time is on the hour. 8 p.m. (not 8:00)
WiFi, wifi, wi-fi, Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi
internet (l/c)
email or e-mail?
Website, website, Web site?
webpage, Webpage, Web page, web page
Internet & Web
email
website
webpage
l/c
between vs among
Use between when talking about two items, among when referencing more than two
Address: Compass points
Abbrev compass pts in a numbered address: 222 E. 42nd St., 562 W. 43rd St., 600 K St. NW.
Don’t abbrev if number is omitted: East 42nd Street, West 43rd Street, K Street Northwest.
l/c in tx: She headed north on the road.
Address: Numbering
Spell and capitalize First-Ninth for street names; use figures for 10th+: 7 Fifth Ave., 100 21st St.
Address: Street Name
If number is not incl, spell out street nm; abbrev st nm (ave, blvd., st. (ABS) if full addr
l/c and spell out if used with more than one street name: Marks and Penn avenues
Address: Street words that are always spelled out
Words: drive, road, alley, terrace (DRAT) are always spelled out.
TX or Texas?
Use a two-letter postal code abbreviation only with a full address that includes zip code.
States: When are they always spelled out?
Spell out the names of the states in text when they appear alone.
States: When are states abbreviated?
Abbreviate when in conjunction with the name of a city, town, village or military base:
Needham, Mass.; Oxnard Air Force Base, Calif.
States: What 8 states are never abbreviated?
Do not abbreviate Alaska, Maine, Ohio, Utah, Texas, Hawaii, Idaho and Iowa (A-MOUTHI)
Publications
books, movies, operas, plays, poems, songs, radio, podcast and television programs, lectures, speeches and works of art
BRAT S(2)LOP’M
Put quotation marks around the title.
Reference material
No quotes for Bible, the Quran and other holy books, and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material: almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks and similar publications.
Newspapers/magazines
no quotes
Modifiers in academic titles
Lowercase modifiers such as department in department Chair Jerome Wiesner.
More than vs. over
More than is preferred with numbers, while over generally refers to spatial elements.
The company has more than 25 employees; The cow jumped over the moon.
Because vs since
Use because to denote a specific cause-effect relationship: I went because I was told.
Since is acceptable in casual senses when the first event in a sequence leads logically to the second, but wasn’t its direct cause. They went to the show, since they had been given tickets.
A good tip is to use since for time elements: Since the product’s 2010 launch, it has sold more than 1 million copies.
Toward, forward/towards, forwards?
Toward/Towards. Toward never ends in an s, same for forward, backward, upward, downward, etc.
That vs. which
Use that & which when referring to inanimate objects or animals w/o names.
Use that for essential clauses important to the meaning of the sentence.
Ex: I remember the day that we met.
Which’s for nonessential clauses, where the pronoun is less necess, w commas
Ex: The team, which won the championship last week, began a new season.
How do adverbs ending in -ly read? Is there a hyphen?
badly battered canoe
fully informed voter
No hyphen is needed between adverbs ending in -ly and adjectives they modify: an easily remembered rule, a badly damaged island
Veterans Day
Veterans’ Day
Veterans Day
