AP Style Cheat Sheet with Examples, Cheat Sheet of Technical Writing

Download AP Style Cheat Sheet with Examples and more Cheat Sheet Technical Writing in PDF only on Docsity! Associated Press Style Quick Reference Guide ● To subscribe to The Associated Press Stylebook online, or to find out about purchasing hard copies of the book, start here. ● To find out about StyleGuard for Word, start here. ● For slide presentations of AP Style basics, go here. Style Rules Examples Academic degrees ● Use an apostrophe and spell out academic degrees ● Use abbreviations for degrees only when you need to include a list of credentials after a name; set them off with commas. She has a bachelor’s degree. Peter White, LL.D., Ph.D., was the keynote speaker. Acronyms ● Don’t use them ● Spell out on first mention. On subsequent mentions, use generic terms such as the board, the division, etc. ● Don’t put acronyms in parentheses after the first reference (for example, “The Water Quality Control Division (WQCD) …”). The state Board of Health meets the third Wednesday of each month. The board’s agenda is available about a week before the meeting. Addresses ● Spell out all generic parts of street names (avenue, north, road) when no specific address is given. ● When a number is used, abbreviate avenue (Ave.), boulevard (Blvd.), street (St.) and directional parts of street names. Our main campus is on Cherry Creek South Drive. The suspect was identified as Michael Shawn of 1512 N. Mission St. CDPHE | AP Style Quick Reference 1 Capitalization ● Do not capitalize federal, state, department, division, board, program, section, unit, etc., unless the word is part of a formal name. ● Capitalize common nouns such as party, river and street when they are part of a proper name. ● Capitalize the word room when used with the number of the room or when part of the name of a specially designated room ● Lowercase directional indicators except when they refer to specific geographic regions or popularized names for those regions. ● Capitalize formal titles that come directly before a name. ● Lowercase formal titles that appear on their own or follow a name. ● Never capitalize job descriptions regardless of whether they are before or after a name The Water Quality Control Division Sarah contacted the division. the Libertarian Party, the Ohio River. Room 315, the Carson Room. Go south on University Boulevard; the Northeast; the Midwest. Gov. John Hickenlooper; Public Health Programs Director Joni Reynolds The governor said to wear orange; Joni Reynolds is the director of Public Health Programs. shortstop, police officer, attorney Dates, days and times ● Always use Arabic figures, without st, nd, rd or th. ● When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. ● When a phrase lists only a month and year, spell out the month and do not separate the month and the year with commas. ● When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas. ● Use figures except for noon and midnight ● Use a.m. or p.m. (with periods) Fall Open House will be held on Oct. 8 (not Oct. 8th). The new website will launch in December 2024. Jan. 15, 2008, was the first day of the semester. The meeting is at 4 p.m. Jan. 15. Names ● Use a person’s first and last name the first time he or she is mentioned. On second reference, use only last name with no title. ● Do not use courtesy titles such as Mr., Mrs., Miss or Ms. unless they are part of a direct quotation or are needed to differentiate between people who have the same last name. Water Quality Control Division Director Steve Gunderson led the panel. Gunderson said clean water is very important. CDPHE | AP Style Quick Reference 2 Period ● Use only one space after the end of a sentence. Period. Here’s why. Quotation marks ● Single quotation marks should be used only for a quote within a quote. Do not use quotation marks for word emphasis. ● The period and the comma always go within the quotation marks. ● The dash, semicolon, question mark and exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence. Semicolon ● Use a semicolon to clarify a series that includes a number of commas. Include a semicolon before the conjunction. Spacing ● Use only one space between sentences. Here's why. “Did you wish to file a complaint?” he asked. Who said, "Fame means when your computer modem is broken, the repair guy comes out to your house a little faster"? Parts for the carrier are made in Tampa, Fla.; Austin, Texas; and Baton Rouge, La. CDPHE | AP Style Quick Reference 5 East St. Louis, Ill., or West Palm Beach, Fla. the west end, northern Los Angeles. South Side (Chicago), Lower East Side (New York). State abbreviations Cities not requiring state names Ala. Md. N.D. Atlanta Milwaukee Ariz. Mass. Okla. Baltimore Minneapolis Ark. Mich. Ore. Boston New Orleans Calif. Minn. Pa. Chicago New York Colo. Miss. R.I. Cincinnati Oklahoma City Conn. Mo. S.C. Cleveland Philadelphia Del. Mont. S.D. Dallas Phoenix Fla. Neb. Tenn. Denver Pittsburgh Ga. Nev. Va. Detroit St. Louis Ill. N.H. Vt. Honolulu Salt Lake City Ind. N.J. Wash. Houston San Antonio Kan. N.M. W. Va. Indianapolis San Diego Ky. N.Y. Wis. Las Vegas San Francisco La. N.C. Wyo. Los Angeles Seattle Miami Washington CDPHE | AP Style Quick Reference 6 Titles ● These formal titles are capitalized and abbreviated as shown when used before a name both inside and outside quotations: Dr.,Gov., Lt. Gov., Rep., Sen. On second reference, use the last name only. ● Generally, capitalize formal titles when they appear before a person’s name ● Lowercase titles if they are informal, appear without a person’s name, follow a person’s name or are set off before a name by commas. ● Lowercase adjectives that designate the status of a title. ● If a title is long, place it after the person’s name, or set it off with commas before the person’s name. ● Abbreviate and capitalize most titles when they are used directly before a name ● Spell out titles with names used in direct quotes with the exception of Dr., Mr. and Mrs. ● Lowercase formal titles that appear on their own or follow a name ● Never capitalize job descriptions -- shortstop, police officer, attorney and so on. ● Titles of books, movies, recordings, television shows and similar works are set off in quotation marks, with all principal words capitalized ● Titles of magazines, newspapers and reference works get no special treatment President Bush; President-elect Obama; Sen. Harry Reid Evan Bayh, a senator from Indiana; the senior senator from Indiana Dick Lugar former President George H.W. Bush Paul Schneider, deputy secretary of Homeland Security, Sen. Boxer posed hard questions for Rice. “Governor Hickenlooper is obviously no Peyton Manning,” she said. Will Allison, director of the Air Pollution Control Division “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” “Letters from Iwo Jima,” “Memory Almost Full,” “Grey’s Anatomy” The New York Times, Today’s Broadcast Technological terms Here are the correct spelling and capitalization rules for some common technological terms. BlackBerry, BlackBerrys download eBay Inc. (use EBay Inc. when the word begins a sentence) e-book e-book reader e-reader email cellphone Facebook CDPHE | AP Style Quick Reference 7