Share this
To learn AP style in full, you can order a copy of the AP Stylebook (available in print and digital). For quick reference, this webpage is useful. But the most basic, most common mistakes you must learn right away:
- Double quotations marks. The only time you use single quotation marks is when you are quoting within a quote.
- Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks. Other punctuation like question marks and exclamation points almost always go inside quotation marks — it depends on whether the punctuation is part of the quote or is part of what is outside the quote.
- The names of songs, films, books and other works of art are surrounded by quotation marks. They are not left without quotation marks. They are not italicized. The names of publications like The New York Times or Wikipedia are written without quotation marks.
- There are no double-spaces. Single spaces between sentences. Single spaces between paragraphs.
- If your location is relevant to the article (for example, if you are in the country where the news took place), include a dateline. The dateline is the location of the journalist at the time of writing, not the location of the story. To write a dateline, capitalize the city, followed by the country (or province/state if the location is in Canada or the U.S.) unless the city is a standalone, followed by a space, a dash, and a space; for example: “VANCOUVER, British Columbia — ” or “ST. LO, France — .” Learn the dateline for your location.
- “U.S.” (with periods) is used in all cases except in headlines, where “US” is used (no periods).
- Use a byline (“By Writer’s Name”) at the bottom of your article.
- Do not write long articles if your English grammar and news style is not near perfect; instead, write articles around 250-300 words in length.
- Include linked text for the sources of your information. Sources can also be listed below an article as linked titles of the sources, but linked text is preferred.
- Titles are written with every word capitalized (The Speaker does this, but this is not in accordance with AP style).
Details on these subjects: