7 Writing Tips Not (Easily) Found in Your AP Style Guide
Due respect to your particular dogma and its respective sacred text, certain vocations have their “Bibles” that most adherents should have readily available.
For the IRS, it’s the Internal Revenue Code. For civil servants, it’s the Penal Code for each state. For most creative directors, it’s High Fidelity, Short Stories with Pabst Blue Ribbon, or something like that. For most C-suites in our industry, it’s “Good to Great” or something Oprah blessed at one time during her heyday.
And for most professionals in public relations, advertising, or copywriting, it is the Style Guide of the Associated Press.
This hallowed text is updated annually forcing all of us to buy a new copy at the turn of a new calendar for what ends up becoming six-and-a-half unfamiliar words and a couple edits to current ones we overlook. We all need it. We all crave it. And few of us understand all of it.
Oh sure, we try to feverishly rummage through every page risking life and limb because of paper cuts, but there are a few random tips that escape us every year. Those hidden gems could become the difference between earning a reporter’s respect and deserving a ‘PR Crappy Pitch of the Week’ note in the media break room.
(And yes, they have those.)
AP Style Guide Secrets
“It’s a Tree, Not a Forest.”
This is what I tell every person who screws up my surname. Why do people gain a sense of sympathy and feel I need an ‘s’ attached to my last name? I wasn’t neglected as a child and was allowed to watch ‘R’-rated movies at the proper age. For the love of Strunk & White, it’s W-O-O-D, not Woods! Likewise, according to AP, any word ending in ‘WARD’ follows the same guideline. Upward, Downward, Toward, Backward, Forward, Sideward – none of them need an ‘s’, and if they are given one for fear of neglect or abuse, you will incur the wrath of copy editors everywhere. And that’s some abuse you don’t want.
Hand Me a Facial Tissue, Please
Isn’t that so much more difficult than asking for a “Kleenex?” It is, if only that were proper grammar. You see, “Kleenex” is a brand and the thing you want to use is “facial tissue.” Same rule applies for searching for something online isn’t actually called “Googling.” If you are having a discussion about brand names, use them for writing and making your point. However, if you don’t want to drop a few dimes thanks to copyright and trademark notices, use common terms like "flying disc" for “Frisbee,” “making a copy” and not “Xerox that” or even for my fellow Texans who want to drink a “Coke” and follow that up with “So, can I get a Big Red?” Wait, what?!
Books Don’t Have Rights
There are times when we want to be fancy and sound proper, so we break out of jargon-speak and go directly into “It sounds official but it’s not so much.” Take your references to books and magazines. If something or someone is “entitled” to something, it means they have a legal or ethical right to possess it. Magazines, books, or even songs are just “titled.”
Stop Hyphenating the Dash
Did you know there are three types of horizontal lines considered punctuation—and they aren’t all called a “hyphen” or “dashes.” If you didn’t see what we did there, this should help.
Hyphen — This is the shortest “dash.” Hyphens are used to connect two or more words. That’s it.
En Dash — The second longest “dash” is an “En” dash, or a horizontal line that is as long as a lowercase “n.” These are used to show a range of things, like numbers or dates (i.e., I use delete 5–10 times per article). You can use them instead of typing “versus” (i.e., The Muhammad Ali–George Foreman fight.)
Em Dash — If punctuation could be underrated, this would be the top of the list. It’s a more direct version of an ellipsis (those…three…dots). AP Style says there should be a space before and after the em dash, but it’s mostly subjective. If you’re looking to emphasize something, don’t use five exclamation points or two ellipses. Stick with an Em Dash. It works every time.
I Can’t Drive 35
Due respect to Sammy Hagar, but 35 is a crucial number to keep in mind when writing. Be it a sentence, clause, or phrase, remember 35. The AP is fan of short, succinct sentences. It’s good practice because most sentences with compound clauses end up looking like a traffic jam on the Pacific Coast Highway. It’s a mess, so AP tends to hover over the number 35—as in words per sentence. Here’s a good rule of thumb: If you’re reading a sentence out loud, and you have to take a breath, it’s too long. Grab the red Sharpie because you have necessary editing to do. At that point, no one cares that it’s diagrammed beautifully. The thing is just too long and lost everyone’s attention about 20 comma splices ago.
The Word of the Day: “Ordinal Indicators”
Two things to know about that fancy word. First, these are the qualifiers most people put after a number like “That’s the 4th time it has happened” or “Today is June 23rd.” Second, now that you know what they are, those superscript support hose suck. Do not use them for dates, numbers, or counting. If you have a list that goes up to the “23rd” of something, use it. Otherwise, today is June 23. And that’s that.
And About that Oxford Comma
The Chicago Manual of Style and The University of Oxford Style Guide recommend it, while AP Stylebook leaves it out. There have been fewer countries declaring war over religion than people opening a can of whoop-ass in the cubicle farm because of arguments over this dreaded piece of punctuation. For the sanctity of everyone in your agency, just allow the editor of your paper his or her proclivity for this stupid pausing agent and live to write another day.
