The Five-minute Stylebook
10 percent of the rules cover 90 percent of style questions
by Fred Vultee, former Missourian Editor and MU Doctoral
Student
PEOPLE
Capitalize formal titles when they appear before names (The
message was sent to President Vicente Fox).
Lowercase titles when they follow a name or stand alone (Bashar
Assad, the Syrian president , fired his foreign minister).
Lowercase occupational or descriptive titles before or after a
name (The story was written by reporter Ziyad Kilani).
Refer to adults in news reports by given name and family name
the first time they appear in a story (Laura Bush) and by family
name only on later references (Bush).
Children 17 or younger are usually referred to by both names on
first reference and first name only on later references. Children in
"adult situations" - common examples are international sports
and serious crimes in which they are charged as adults - are
referred to by last name only on later references.
To avoid confusing two people with the same family name, such
as husband and wife or mother and son, use both names on later
references. A story mentioning Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney
should usually refer to them as "Dick Cheney" and "Lynne
Cheney" even after they are introduced if there's any chance of
confusion. Sometimes a title can be repeated to make the
distinction (Dick Cheney could be "Vice President Cheney" or "the
vice president" on later references). Only rarely, in some feature
stories, will you want to refer to adults by given name on later
references.
Do not use courtesy titles (Mr., Mrs., Ms.) in news reports except
in direct quotes.
Abbreviate military and police titles before names according to a
standard reference list such as the one in the AP Stylebook. Don't
abbreviate titles when they stand alone or follow a name (Gen.
Douglas MacArthur, the general). Exceptions are allowed for
widely used initialisms (The Microsoft CEO was executed at
dawn).
PLACES
Most stylebooks will have a list of cities that are assumed to be
understood without having the name of the state ( Boston, New
York, Los Angeles) or country (New York, London, Cairo)
attached. Follow those guidelines with the usual exceptions for
common sense if needed (Books that are popular in London,
Ontario, might not be popular in London, England).
Do not abbreviate the names of states when they stand alone.
Abbreviate state names of six or more letters only, and only
when they are used with a city or county (Roswell, N.M.;
Fairfax County, Va.). Never abbreviate Alaska and Hawaii.
Do not abbreviate such designations as "street" when they stand
alone. Only three of these are abbreviated - "street," "avenue"
and "boulevard" - and they are only abbreviated when they
appear with a numbered address. Do not abbreviate "south" or
"north" indicating a part of a road unless it appears with an
address (South Eighth Street; 221 S. Eighth St.; 221 Abbey
Road).
THINGS
Capitalize proper nouns; lowercase common nouns. Capitalize
trademarks (I drank a Pepsi) or use a common noun as a
substitute (I drank a soft drink).
Use abbreviations on first reference only if they are widely known
(CIA agents helped overthrow the prime minister of Iran).
Otherwise spell out the names of agencies on first reference (The
U.S. Agency for International Development; USAID). If an
abbreviation would be confusing, use a common-noun substitute
(the State Law and Order Restoration Council; the council or
the junta) on later references.
Generally, don't abbreviate units of measure (pounds, miles,
hours, etc.).
TIME
Use only the day of the week for events within a week of
publication (The summit ended Monday. The negotiators will
meet Thursday).
Use "last" or "next" only if needed for clarity (The summit ended
Monday, and the negotiators will meet again next Monday).
Never abbreviate days of the week.
Use "today" to refer to the day of publication or broadcast only.
Do not use "yesterday" or "tomorrow" except in direct quotes.
Use month and day to refer to events happening a week or more
before or after publication. Use cardinal numbers, not ordinal
numbers, for dates (The summit began July 11 . The seminar will
be held March 3).
Don't use the year unless the event is more than a year before or
after publication (He died March 17, 1999 . The currency will be
introduced Jan. 1, 2007).
Do not abbreviate a month unless it has a date (January ; Jan.
1). Do not abbreviate months of less than six letters (March ;
March 12, 1998).
Use lowercase "a.m." and "p.m." to indicate morning, afternoon
and night. Use "noon" and "midnight" rather than the unclear "12
a.m." or the redundant "12 noon." Always use figures for time, in
this form: 8 a.m., 10:30 p.m., 1:45 a.m.
Follow time-date-place order: Martial law was declared at
noon Friday in Jesse Hall. Trials of collaborators will begin
at 2 p.m. Oct. 14 in Mexico, Mo.
NUMBERS
The basic rule: Spell out numbers under 10. Use figures for 10
and above.
The main exceptions:
Spell out any number, except a year, that begins a sentence
(Twelve students attended. 1999 was an important year).
Use figures for dates, weights, ages, times, addresses and
percentages .
For most numbers of a million or more, use this form, rounded
off to no more than two decimal places: 1.45 million , the
$18.1 billion budget . If the exact number is important, write it
out: He received 1,253,667 votes to 988,401 for his opponent.
Spell out numbers used as figures of speech (Thanks a million).
Spell out fractions when they stand alone (use one-half cup of
flour). Otherwise write them as mixed fractions (1½ cups of
flour) or decimals (1.5 liters of water). Generally, use a 0 to
precede a decimal smaller than zero (0.75 kilograms).
IN SUMMARY …
Many of the above rules can be found alphabetically in AP style
guide, and with more detail, under the following entries:
months
highways
state names
dates
titles
times
directions and regions
capitalizations
numerals
sentences
addresses
weights
fractions
sizes
