COMM 207: AP Stylebook, the parts to know

Here's a list of some of the really confusing and really important entries in the AP Stylebook. Go through the Stylebook and circle the key words and the page numbers. Carry the book with you, and/or keep it in the bathroom for those moments when you want something quick to read and don't have enough time to curl up with "War and Peace." Some are easy to learn. Some aren't.

But you'll learn them in time. The sections below include the most important differences between AP style and the style you used in college papers:

abbreviations and acronyms. It's important. And tricky in places. I wouldn't try to learn it all at once, but I would start using the more common abbreviations. Using the right abbreviation in the right place is one of the marks of a professional journalist's copy.

addresses. Picky, picky. And arbitrary, arbitary. Learn at least the main guidelines, and know to look up the exceptions.

capitalization. In general, you'll use fewer capitals in AP style than you did in English papers. But there are lots of exceptions and special cases.

cents. See also dollars and percent. The principles are related. Write dollars and cents like this: $4 without the zeroes if it's a round number, $4.15 or whatever if it isn't. Cents like this: 15 cents. Percents like this: 30 percent.

composition titles. Basically you put titles in quotes for a newspaper that you would ordinarily underline or put in italics for college papers.

directions and regions. It's all about when to capitalize something like "central Illinois" and when not to. It's basically like the rule you learned in English classes, but it has a couple of wrinkles of its own.

fewer, less You'll make fewer mistakes if you know this, and you'll be less likely to get it wrong, too.

governmental bodies. Newspapers are full of government news. I know, I know. That's why they're losing readers. But till the last dying newspaper goes out of business, you'll be writing about governmental bodies. This item tells you how.

it's, its It's essential for you to put the apostrophe in its proper place.

midnight. Also see noon. The only times of the day you don't use "a.m." or "p.m." You don't use numbers, either. The Stylebook explains why.

more than. Also see over. Use "more than" with numbers of things, "over" with heights.

numerals This is probably the one that's hardest -- and most important -- to learn in the whole book. It's important because the rules are different than they are in more formal writing, and following the AP rules on numbers will mark your copy as being written by a pro. So keep the Stylebook in the bathroom, so your fancy can lightly turn to the section on numerals instead of, say, Tennyson whenever you're looking for a few minutes of light reading matter.

plurals. Did I say numerals was the hardest? Maybe it's plurals. What's worse, numerals and plurals come up all the time. You'll never run out of fun stuff to read in the AP Stylebook!

possessives. AP's rules defy logic. So you'd better learn them. More reading for the bathroom.

state names. The tricky part is the abbreviations, which are not the same ones the Postal Service uses. Learn a few you're likely to use, like "Ill." and "Mo." Look up the rest. I guess you could memorize them, but do you really think you'll be writing that much about Casper, Wyo.?

time element, time of day and times. Picky, picky, picky. But the rules make sense once you get used to them.

titles. Don't try to learn them all. Just know this section is there when you need it. And you'll need it often.

trademark. The principle here is you don't give free advertising to a commercial product. Nor do you want to dilute the value of somebody else's brand by using it loosely. See brand names above, and, for an example, "Xerox," below.

Xerox The stylebook says: "A trademark for a brand of photocopy machine. Never a verb." Why? It's a trademark that belongs to Xerox Corp. The verb you want, by the way, is photocopy.

yesterday AP says: "Use only in direct quotes or in phrases that do not reference a specific day." Why not? It's a relative term, so it changes every day. What's yesterday today is day-before-yesterday tomorrow, and what's tomorrow today is today tomorrow. Clear enough?

We'll look at punctuation separately later. But for now, here's one rule on commas you can start practicing now: When you have three items in a series, don't put a comma after the last one. It should look like this instead: "... ham, eggs and toast." And the rule on spaces after a period is different, too. Only use one space after a period. Not two, like you were taught in school. One. Always. Only one. If you double-space after a period, you mess up the justification (the spacing between words and columns). And you look like an amateur. You don't want to do either, right?