These pertain to entries in the AP Stylebook. If you work for a newspaper, another type of publication or are taking a journalism-based course, there may be “house rules” that are a bit different.
- One through nine are written out, 10 and up are numerals. However, ages are always numerals.
- Source said, not said source (unless the source has a long title). Not “says” either.
- Attributions typically go after the first sentence of a quote, but can be placed depending on what sounds best.
- Titles are only capitalized if they precede a name: OU President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz vs. Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, OU president.
- Quotes get their own paragraphs unless they’re fragmented.
- “Towards” is not a word. Always use “toward.”
- Minimize usage of the word “that,” as it’s often unnecessary. You also should not use “said that.”
- Only use the Oxford comma if omitting it could lead to confusion or misinterpretation.
- Book, movie, show, song, album, play, video game and poem titles should always be put in quotation marks, NOT italicized. Newspaper, magazine or academic journal titles should not be in quotes or italicized.
- Periods, commas and ellipses should always go inside quotation marks.
- When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell out when using the month by itself, or with a year and no specific date (e.g. November 2020, or this November).
- In accordance with changes made to the 2019 AP Stylebook, use the % symbol rather than the word “percent.” State names should also be spelled out in all cases (e.g. Clio, Michigan).
- Times should be written out like this: 8 a.m., 9 p.m., etc. 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. should be written as midnight and noon, respectively. Avoid redundancies like 9 a.m. in the morning.
- Em dashes are preferred over semicolons (however, check with your house style). When an em dash is used, there should be a space before and after it. Some newspapers may prefer to use two hyphens in place of an em dash, so pay attention to house rules.
The next section of the AP Style resources is AP Style Exercises.