AP Style The Journalists’ Bible

How Good Are You? Are you sitting there, their or they’re? Are you an effective speaker or an affective one? Do you where clothes or wear them? Do you perceive reality or percieve it? Is the music two loud, to loud or too loud? Don’t rely on spell check!

Quick Assignment Take this quiz to see how much you already knowthis quiz (don’t freak…it’s not for a grade!)

What is the Associated Press? Global news network Reporters all over the world Investigate and create stories that run in news outlets all over the world

What is AP Style? Style of writing Used by news outlets and those in the journalism industry Guide for grammar, punctuation and principles of reporting You gotta follow it!

Top AP Style Rules Use a person’s full name and title the first time you mention him or her in an article – Use Don Swanson, professor of communication, not Prof. Swanson Spell out abbreviations or acronyms on first reference – Use Ridge Point High School the first time you refer to the school. You can use RPHS thereafter

Top AP Style Rules Abbreviate months when used with days, and use numerals, not ordinal numbers – Write Sept. 28, not September 28 – Short months get the whole word – March, April, May, June and July Spell out numbers zero through nine and use numerals for 10 and higher, unless it’s the first word in a sentence – Attending the RPHS Homecoming dance were 623 students – Six hundred twenty-three students attended…

Top AP Style Rules Spell out “percent” but use numerals for the actual number – Nearly 50 percent of RPHS students attended the football game To indicate time, use figures and lowercase letters (9 a.m., 6 p.m.); put a space between the figure and the letters; exceptions are noon and midnight – The RPHS school store is open between 9 a.m. and noon

Top AP Style Rules Capitalize formal titles before a name – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended the meeting – Principal Tammy Edwards runs the school General titles are lower case – Hillary of Clinton, secretary of state, attended the meeting – Tammy Edwards and other principals attended the convention this summer

Top AP Style Rules Capitalize names of people, places or things to set them apart from a general group – The plane landed in the Hudson River Use lowercase for common nouns – The plane landed in the river Do not use courtesy titles such as Mr., Miss, Mrs. or Ms.

Is that it? Is that ALL of the AP Style rules? NO. There are many! Get to know your AP Stylebook and how to look things up

Assignment i: ap style Download this Word documentthis Word document Title it [your last name] AP Style I and submit it to Mrs. J via Google Drive by midnight on Monday, October 19, 2015

Assignment 2: ap style Download this Word documentthis Word document Title it [your last name] AP Style 2 and submit it to Mrs. J via Google Drive by midnight on Tuesday, October 20, 2015