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Questions tagged [ap-style]

Associated Press style guide questions

The Associated Press is a multinational (US) news agency that writes "wire reports". AP style is designed to optimize and standardize popular journalism. Its standards are published in The Associated Press Stylebook.

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Use of punctuation within quotes with single words or letters

Consider the following sentence: Huego becomes fuego by discarding its "h" in favor of "f". Do not omit the trailing "s", which is key to the overall meaning here. Nueve comes from the Latin word "nueve", which also gives us the English word,…
TheLearner
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How to quote programming code in AP Style?

I would like to put the following code in an article that is written in AP Style: puts 'Hello, world!' How do I do this? If I were to put the code (C++, Ruby, whatever) in an article that was written in a newspaper, how would I write it? Is the…
Carl Roberts
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tinyURL seen as risky by readers?

I see tinyURL recommended for news or magazine-style writing where AP style prevails--but then I see online warnings that clicking a tinyURL may take readers to sites they do not (at all) want to visit. I'm writing source-rich articles on such…
khassall
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When do I spell out numbers in bulleted lists?

My organization produces technical reports and bases their style on Associated Press (AP) style. In one of these reports, I have a list like so: Topics with permission: Publish — 3 topics Subscribe — 2 topics Receive — 2 topics AddPermission — 5…
Anthony Lozano
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Attributing TV media sources in online, AP style, journalistic articles

I am the editor of a small news blog. I am trying to train my writers to link to their sources. One writer sends me an article without linked sources, so I ask for the sources. They email back responding that the way they obtained their sources was…
Valorie Broderick
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Period outside quotation marks ...?

I am quoting a phrase (not dialog) that happens to come at the end of a sentence. Formal writing protocol - I think - tells us that punctuation goes inside the quotes but it seems strange here. A gangster might channel The Godfather movies by…
CJ Cornell
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Footnote placement -- inside or outside terminal quote?

When you are referencing information in the footnote, is it customary to put the footnote number inside the quote or outside? For instance is it: "The pink pig."1 or: "The pink pig.1"
Melanie
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Why might a news organization use demonyms for some countries ("German military") and noun forms for others ("China state banks")?

This is surely some style guide thing, but I'll link and excerpt six Reuters headlines: "Pakistan military rescues..." "Pakistan crowd vandalizes..." "China state banks..." "... as China woes persist" "Anger as French government..." "German military…
aaron
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Comma between the following clauses in AP Style?

The AP style says that a comma is not needed between two clauses that have the same subject. However, it would become ambiguous if I removed the comma fromt the following: When you walk straight down the hall, you will be met with two doors: the…
Noah
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Attributing a single source in a blog post

Let's say you're writing a blog post based on a single source, like a podcast. You use several quotes from the podcast for the post. Is it necessary to cite the single podcast source every time you use a direct quote (or paraphrased content)? Or is…
Paula Last
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