Chefs have spatulas. Painters have palettes. Doctors have their stethoscopes. Journalists? We have the AP Stylebook.<\/p>\n
Cherubs at the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute received their own stylebooks before facing off in a last-student-standing competition to determine who was the most well-versed in Associated Press style rules.<\/p>\n
The AP Stylebook provides the correct spelling and usage of words and so much more. In 624 pages, journalists have a complete guide to life.<\/p>\n
Here are the top 10 AP style pointers from cherub instructors.<\/p>\n
1. Oxford comma\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n While many are tempted to include the serial comma, in journalism it\u2019s important to remember that a comma is treated\u00a0 as a substitute for \u201cand\u201d in lists. For \u201cred, white and blue,\u201d adding an Oxford comma would effectively make the phrase \u201cred white and and blue.\u201d Omit the Oxford comma unless leaving it out would confuse readers.<\/p>\n 2. Punctuation inside quotation marks\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n With quotes making up a large portion of every story, journalists must get this right. Commas and periods go inside the quotation mark that closes the quote. Ending a quote \u201clike this\u201d, is sure to give your instructor a heart attack. Make sure commas and periods in quotes look \u201clike this,\u201d instead.<\/p>\n 3. Numbers one to nine written out instead of numerals<\/strong><\/p>\n Numbers one through nine are generally spelled out. Use numerals for everything else. For example, in \u201cInstructor Joe Grimm wore four different hats today,\u201d the number four is written instead of the numeral. The latest AP stylebook lists ages, dimensions, votes and other exceptions to the numerals rule.<\/p>\n 4. Non-sexist writing\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Use gender-neutral terms for jobs and avoid language that ties occupations and gender together. For example, use \u201cpolice officer\u201d instead of \u201cpoliceman\u201d or\u00a0 \u201cpolicewoman.\u201d<\/p>\n 5. Subject-verb agreement\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n When writing or rewriting, it\u2019s easy to forget subject-verb agreement. Plural nouns take plural verbs. Singular nouns and verbs go together. The same is true with nouns and pronouns. Read drafts aloud and make sure that grammar is consistent. There\u2019s a big difference between \u201cthe team is\u201d and \u201cthe team are.\u201d<\/p>\n 6. Colons<\/strong><\/p>\n Colons introduce. According to AP, \u201cCapitalize the first word after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n 7. Titles\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Our AP Style quiz had cherubs dropping like flies. Capitalize formal titles only and capitalize them only before a name. Use lowercase if used after. \u201cPresident Obama,\u201d and \u201cObama, the president.\u201d When in doubt, put the title after the name.<\/p>\n 8. Addresses<\/strong><\/p>\n Street addresses vary. In numbered addresses abbreviate avenue, boulevard and street. Not road. For example, \u201cPennsylvania Avenue\u201d but \u201c1600 Pennsylvania Ave.\u201d<\/p>\n 9. Use cardinal numbers in dates<\/strong><\/p>\n Delete ordinal indicators such as \u201cth\u201d \u201cst\u201d \u201crd\u201d and \u201cnd\u201d after dates. Use\u00a0 \u201cJuly 3\u201d instead of \u201cJuly 3rd.\u201d<\/p>\n 10. Abbreviating months\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n For dates, abbreviate January, February, August, September, October, November and December. March, April, May, June and July are short enough to spell out alone. \u201cMay 8,\u201d \u201cJan. 23\u201d and \u201cDec. 14\u201d are examples of proper usage.<\/p>\n In the cherub world, these are our If you want to ace your AP style quiz next year, earn a couple of prizes and impress your instructors, practice your stylebook skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Students competed to be the last one standing in Associated Press style quiz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":4923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[325],"class_list":["post-4820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":325,"user_id":138,"is_guest":0,"slug":"celinalee","display_name":"Celina Lee","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/804fdb76639bf315047eaf9750ba80e51e2a7660c2b88e2ba1022762c11ce1ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Lee","first_name":"Celina","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4820"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6649,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4820\/revisions\/6649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4820"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ten<\/del> 10 commandments.<\/p>\n