Write an AP-Style Newspaper Article
The Associated Press (AP) is the largest news organization in the world, providing stories to print and online publications. AP writers follow specific style rules, which are spelling out in the Associated Press Stylebook. These rules are also commonly followed by other journalists, magazine writers and public relations professionals. While it's best to read the stylebook to learn all of the rules, there are some common ones you can learn without the book. They will help you look professional by writing an AP-style newspaper article.
Instructions
1. Spell out numbers between one and nine, and use Arabic numbers for 10 and higher for AP-style news articles. If you are referring to an age or percentage, use an Arabic number even if it is less than 10. When you start a sentence with a number, it should be spelled out even if it is 10 or higher.
2. When you refer to the United States as a noun, the two words should be spelled out. If you are using it as an adjective, it should be abbreviated as U.S. For example, you might refer to a U.S. citizen being detained at the airport rather than spelling out "United States citizen."
3. Do not use the standard two-letter abbreviations for states when writing in AP style. States with names less than six letters long, or those that are not part of the contiguous United States, should always be spelled out completely. These include Iowa, Idaho, Ohio,, Maine, Utah, Texas, Hawaii and Alaska, Other states should be abbreviated with the two- to four-letter abbreviations as listed in the AP Stylebook. When you are referring to a state without the name of a city or town, the state name should be spelled out completely.
4. Dates should always be expressed in Arabic numbers and should not end with a suffix such as "rd" or "th." Months should always be capitalized, and certain months (Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.) should be abbreviated when they are used with a specific date.
5. Arabic numbers should be used for time in AP style news stories, with the exception of midnight and noon. Insert a colon to separate hours and minutes, and use a.m. or p.m. to indicate whether the time is during the day or night.
6. Academic degrees should not be abbreviated, and an apostrophe should be used to indicate a bachelor's or master's degree. Abbreviations are only acceptable when you are referring to a list of people with degrees, which would make it awkward to use the whole title for each person.
7. When a formal title, such as president, precedes a name, spell it out and capitalize it when using AP style. Otherwise, a lowercase letter can be used. For example, you would refer to Chairman Lewis or Betty Lewis, department chair.
