If you are not familiar, journalists abide by something called the Associated Press Stylebook. While certain companies have their own guidelines, AP style writing is the gold standard. Even if you are not a journalist, anyone in a career that involves writing for print, digital, radio or television should be familiar with these rules. I recently upgraded from my 2008 edition and a lot has changed. Here are some notable updates and a few of my longtime pet peeves.
Email, internet and livestream
The digital landscape is constantly changing and the rules surrounding common terms are evolving as well. Take out those pesky hyphens when writing about emails (even if it’s in an email). According to the AP Stylebook, you can use a hyphen with other “e-” terms such as e-book.
The word internet, no longer needs to be capitalized, unless it is at the beginning of a sentence. I highly recommend reading this full entry which includes sections on internet privacy, radio and security.
I am guilty of this myself, but the words live and stream should not be separated when referring to a livestream.
More than/over
This one goes against everything I was taught in the business. To me, over is a preposition (like under) and more than is preferred when discussing a quantity. Much to my dismay, over is now “acceptable in all uses to indicate greater numerical value.” Let’s count this as a win when it comes to character limits on certain social media platforms.
Percent
This is another one that will take some getting used to. I was taught to always spell out the word percent. It is now acceptable to “use the % sign when paired with a numeral, with no space, in most cases.” This change was made in 2019, so even if you don’t agree with your editor 100% of the time, you may want to cut people some slack.
Health care
Even though this entry has not changed in the last decade, I constantly see health care written as one word. Health headlines are extremely common, especially when it comes to legislation and an ongoing pandemic. An exception to this rule is if you are referring to the proper name of a particular health care organization.
Time
This is a mistake I see far too often. The newscast starts at 6:30 p.m. not 6:30 PM or 6:30 P.M. The terms “noon” and “midnight” are also acceptable. Another pet peeve, do not say 8 a.m. in the morning. Readers know the difference between morning, afternoon and night. The AP Stylebook says to “avoid such redundancies.”
Cancel, canceled
Although we live in a “cancel culture” we cannot seem to agree on the proper spelling. Take out that extra “L” when writing for a professional publication.
Entries to review:
Holidays: Make sure you write these days correctly such as New Year’s Eve, Easter, Hanukkah, etc. Also, it is Presidents Day. There is no apostrophe, but I see this written incorrectly every year.
Datelines: Please remember to add datelines to the beginning of news stories. State abbreviations are not the same as postal codes. For example Pa. is short for Pennsylvania. Study and familiarize yourself with domestic cities that stand alone, such as CHICAGO and PHILADELPHIA.
Misinformation, fact checks and fake news: It pains me to see this as an entry, but it is important to review.
AP social media guidelines: This is so important, it has its own section of the book. This will continue to change, but it is important to review at all stages of your career.