My copy of The Associated Press Stylebook 2019 arrived in my mailbox after Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee had already issued the order to shelter in place, so learning AP style has been one of my projects while social distancing.
Faced with reviewing a 600-page book filled with rules, I was a little intimidated. My first instinct was to read through it like a textbook or reference it only when I had a question about a term. As I became more familiar with how the information was arranged, I discovered that this book would require a different style of learning. If you’ve never encountered AP style before, here are some of the most important, commonly used rules.
The AP Stylebook was first published in 1953 and has since defined the standard of journalism and mass communication in the U.S., helping to keep the media’s vocabulary and formatting consistent. It outlines basic rules on grammar, punctuation, usage and journalistic style, but also reflects changes in common language. Since 1985, the stylebook has been updated annually. Every year the editors add new words as terms spring into popular use, adjust capitalization and spelling, and deter people from using pejorative expressions. The timely updates published by the AP Stylebook are especially helpful when reporting in a rapidly evolving situation like COVID-19. For example, the recently released guidelines define that I must shelter in place due to a shelter-in-place order and the editors help differentiate between antiseptics and disinfectants.
As I started reading through the book, I became curious about how people learned AP style and if their experiences were similar to mine. Luckily, I have access to eight wonderful team members at Communiqué PR who answered my survey about when they were introduced to AP, how they learned it, and what rules they remember offhand. This survey is clearly not representative of PR professionals because of the tiny sample size and the distinct sampling limit. However, it was a huge help for me in determining best practices in learning AP style and some of that insight might also be helpful for mentors or teachers supporting others.
Here are my results:
- Half of my colleagues were first exposed in college and the remainder were introduced to AP style in a professional environment like an internship or job. These differences proved to have a large impact on how people learned AP, likely because of the difference in support structures and the consequences of mistakes.
- Most respondents agreed that referencing the AP stylebook as they worked on assignments was one of the best ways to learn AP style.
- Those who learned AP style in a professional environment found personal research, including research around the history of terms and their grammar, to be another important strategy to learning AP, followed by asking questions. In contrast, my colleagues who learned AP style in college placed asking questions higher and research lower.
- Finally, my co-workers rated reading through AP Stylebook’s Twitter posts, discussions with others and lectures from more knowledgeable AP users toward the middle of their choices, but that ranking was widely variable.
From this information, my personal experience and research, I have seven tips for people learning AP style.
- Double-check your knowledge of the parts of speech, including general sentence construction, and other elements of English grammar. This will help your writing and give you a better foundation for learning AP style.
- Use multiple techniques and try not to limit yourself to one method of learning AP style. Everyone learns differently and using multiple methods often supports memory.
- Read articles and other text written in AP style.
- Enjoy the learning process. Try reading through AP’s Twitter feed in your free time or highlight the book when you find a surprising or interesting entry.
- Use AP style as much as possible, in work and in your personal life. Immersion in AP style will help you learn it faster, as it does when you learn another language.
- Make a checklist of common mistakes you make and double check your work.
- Ask skilled users of AP style questions when you reach an issue you do not know how to resolve. By working through it and discussing it with someone, you will remember that rule better and gain insight on how other writers use AP style.
For those mentoring AP learners, I recommend the following:
- Emphasize consistency by recommending that every piece of work your learner completes (even emails!) follows AP style. Referencing the AP Stylebook then becomes a habit and they have low-stakes opportunities to make mistakes.
- Supply resources. Make sure that the learner has his or her own AP Stylebook, mention AP Stylebook’s Twitter, send them articles to read that were written in AP style, call attention to annual changes, and try to arrange time when your learner could ask about or discuss AP style.
- Decide how much support you can dedicate and communicate that to your learner. Can you proofread their work? Do you have time to answer their questions about AP? If not, let them know so they can supplement their learning elsewhere.
- Reference the AP Stylebook yourself to set a good example and identify elements that confuse you or may surprise your learner.
AP style can be challenging to learn. Terms and usage change annually, there are hundreds of pages of dense content, and some rules defined in the AP Stylebook are surprising or even contradictory to general English grammar and vocabulary. However, learning AP style has been a rewarding endeavor and I have appreciated my discovery of this perspective into mass media in the U.S.