AP+Style+Cheat+Sheet

AP Style Cheat Sheet—See AP Stylebook for further reference Punctuation 1. Use commas to separate words in a series, but not before the "and": math, science and history. 2. Quotes within a quote are shown with single quote marks. "He told me, 'do that,'" White said. 3. Punctuation goes INSIDE the quote marks. "Sugar cookies are yummy," freshman Emily Soule said. Or "Where are we going?" 4. Do not use exclamation marks except in satire. It is a form of editorializing. 5. Use "boys" and "girls" to designate teams. Do not use an apostrophe. The team does not belong to the boys or the girls. Boys basketball team, girls soccer team. 6. Use a semi-colon only if you have two independent clauses (i.e. could stand alone as complete sentences) in the sentence. They should have no conjunction between them, and go together but need a pause between them. They searched all day, but had no chance of finding her; she had long ago left the area. However, it is usually better to just separate the parts into two different sentences. They searched all day, but had no chance of finding her. She had long ago left the area. Also, use semi-colons to clarify a detailed list. See Style Book for further reference. 7. All movie, book, album, etc. title are placed in quotes. "A Tale of Two Cities," "Spirited Away."

Dates and Times 1. Dates are always written as: Jan 5, Oct. 10, Feb. 14. The exception is if there are five or fewer letters in the name of the month, in which case you spell it out. June 11, April 12. 2. Never include the year unless there might be confusion. 3. Do not use o'clock to show the time - use 2 p.m. or 9 a.m. instead. 4. Spell out noon and midnight instead of writing 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. 5. Use the day of the week whenever possible, especially in cutlines. Do not abbreviate it.

Names and Titles 1. The first time a name appears in a story, use the full name. After that, use just the last name. 2. The first time a name appears, identify it with a title, such as freshman, junior, teacher, English teacher, math teacher, or principal. Do no capitalize freshman, sophomore, junior, senior or any class subject expect for languages (English, Chinese, Spanish). 3. In there is more than one person with the same last name in the article, call them by their first name on second reference.

Figures 1. Spell out the numbers one through nine, and use figures for 10 and above. 2. When indicating dollars, write $10; for large figures, write $1.5 million. 3. If a number begins a sentence, spell it out.

Do not capitalize 1. Words like state, regionals, or districts unless they are part of the full title: Region II Golf Tournament. 2. The names of athletic events and teams: the varsity boys basketball team, football game. 3. Abbreviations for the time of day: a.m., p.m.

Abbreviations 1. Use full name on first reference and acronym after that, as long as it is a commonly known and recognized abbreviation (such as ASB). Do NOT put the abbreviation in parentheses after the spelled out version. Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) 2. When referring to a city and state, the state is not referred to by its postal code (WA, OR). See style guide for correct references. 3. Do not abbreviate distances, weights, or degrees (25 pounds, 70 degrees). Spell out percent (15 percent)

Some miscellaneous things 1. Our newspaper is The Lincoln Log on first reference, the Lincoln Log after that. The name is neither italicized or quoted. 2. The school is referred to as Lincoln High School or Lincoln on first reference, and KW after that. However, the school name should only be used in rare cases, such as when two teams need to be distinguished from each other.

Punctuation

apostrophe (') • For plural nouns ending in s, add only an apostrophe: the girls' toys, states' rights. • For singular common nouns ending in s, add 's: the hostess's invitation, the witness's answer. • For singular proper names ending in s, use only an apostrophe: Descartes' theories, Kansas' schools. • For singular proper names ending in s sounds such as x, ce, and z, use 's: Marx's theories, the prince's life. • For plurals of a single letter, add 's: Mind your p's and q's, the Red Sox defeated the Oakland A's. • Do not use 's for plurals of numbers, or multiple letter combinations: the 1980s, RBIs

colon • Capitalize the first word after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence: He promised this: The company will make good all the losses. But: There were three considerations: expense, time and feasibility. • Colons go outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quoted material.

comma • Do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series: John, Paul, George and Ringo; red, white and blue. • Use a comma to set off a person's hometown and age: Jane Doe, Framingham, was absent. Joe Blow, 34, was arrested yesterday.

dash (--) • Make a dash by striking the hyphen key twice. Put a space on either side of the dash: Smith offered a plan — it was unprecedented — to raise revenues. • Use a dash after a dateline: SOMERVILLE — The city is broke.

Hyphen (-) • Use a hyphen for compound adjectives before the noun: well-known actor, full- time job, 20-year sentence • Do not use a hyphen when the compound modifier occurs after the verb: The actor was well known. Her job became full time. He was sentenced to 20 years. • Do not use a hyphen to denote an abrupt change in a sentence—use a dash.

Parentheses • The perceived need for parentheses is an indication that your sentence is becoming contorted. Try to rewrite the sentence, putting the incidental information in commas, dashes or in another sentence. If you do use parentheses, follow these guidelines: • If the material is inside a sentence, place the period outside the parentheses. • If the parenthetical statement is a complete independent sentence, place the period inside the parentheses.

Period • Use a single space after the period at the end of a sentence. • Do not put a space between initials: C.S. Lewis; G.K. Chesterton.

Quotation marks (“ ”) • In dialogue, each person’s words are placed in a separate paragraph, with quotation marks at the beginning and end of each person’s speech. • Periods and commas always go within quotation marks. • Dashes, semicolons, question marks and exclamation points go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted material. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence. •Use single marks for quotes within quotes: She said, "He told me, 'I love you.'"

Titles • Of books, computer games, movies, operas, plays, poems, songs, television programs, lectures, speeches and works of art: - Put quotation marks around the title. - Capitalize the first and last words of the title. - Capitalize the principal words, including all verbs and prepositions and conjunctions with more than three letters

• Of newspapers and magazines: - Do not place in quotation marks. - Capitalize the in the name if that is the way the publication prefers to be known. - Lowercase the before names if listing several publications, some of which use the as part of the name and some of which do not: Time Newsweek, the Washington Post, and the NewYork Times. - Where location is needed but not part of the official name, use parentheses: The Huntsville (Ala.) Times, The Toledo (Ohio) Blade.

• Of places: - The best reference for all place names is the “U.S. Postal Service Directory of Post Offices.” - The best reference for foreign geographic names is the most recent edition of “Webster’s New World College Dictionary.” The second-best reference is the “National Geographic Atlas of the World.” - Lowercase compass directions: The warm front is moving east. - Capitalize names of U.S. regions: The Northeast depends on the Midwest for its food supply. - The “Middle East” applies to Afghanistan, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The term is preferable to “Mideast.”

• Of ethnic groups: - The preferred usage for African Americans is “black.” The term is not capitalized. - Preferred usage for Caucasians is “white,” also not capitalized. - Preferred usage for Asian people is “Asian,” capitalized. Please note that in British usage the term applies only to people of the Indian Subcontinent. - “American Indian,” capitalized with no hyphen, is preferred over “Native American.”

• Of seasons: - Lowercase “spring,” “summer,” “fall” and “winter” and derivatives such as “wintertime” unless part of a formal name: I love Paris in the springtime; the Winter Olympics.

For further reference, go to the AP Stylebook in class.