Video summary

Associated Press Style

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas / lessons conveyed

  • AP (Associated Press) Style is the journalism/public relations writing standard used widely in newspapers, magazines, broadcast, and PR materials.
  • It provides consistency, accuracy, and clarity in grammar, punctuation, and language.
  • The AP Stylebook is updated regularly to reflect changing language and usage.
  • AP Style differs from other common writing styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Oxford), so students need to learn it specifically for journalism.
  • AP Style aims to be:
    • Totally accurate
    • Clear to a high-school level reader
    • Inoffensive (e.g., typically avoids curse words)
    • As succinct as possible
  • The speaker’s approach is to learn a manageable set of high-frequency rules rather than memorizing everything.

Methodology / instruction list: “Professor Grabowski’s Top 15 AP Style Rules”

  1. Full name and title first; last name later

    • Use a person’s full name and formal title the first time you mention them.
    • After first identification, use last name or a pronoun (he/she) / “professor” as appropriate.
    • Do not use courtesy titles (Mr., Ms., Mrs.) except in direct quotes or when needed to distinguish people with the same name.
    • Use “Doctor” only for health care professionals (not for PhDs or professors).

  2. Capitalize formal titles when they appear before a name

    • Capitalize formal titles before a person’s name.
    • Long titles may be shortened if not essential, and shortened forms generally aren’t capitalized.
    • Titles after a name are lowercased.
    • General descriptors like actor, student, activist are lowercased.

  3. Dates: spell out months in general; abbreviate specific dates

    • Month alone: spell out (e.g., “September”).
    • Specific date: abbreviate months only for these: Jan, Feb, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec.
    • Abbreviations in the video are presented as: Jn, feb, aug, sept, oct, nov, dec (as shown).
    • Do not use ordinal endings (no “1st/2nd”): write September one, September two.
    • Example logic: Feb 2020 → “February 2020” (month is not abbreviated when it’s just the month/year).

  4. Numbers in general

    • Spell out 0–9.
    • Use numerals for 10+.
    • If a number appears at the beginning of a sentence, the rule changes: spell it out—except numbers/dates like the example given.
    • The video emphasizes that numbers/dates are always expressed numerically (example: “2020 was…” stays 2020).

  5. Ages

    • Use numerals for all ages, even under 10.
    • When age is used as an adjective (e.g., “19-year-old”), use hyphens: “19-year-old”.
    • Otherwise avoid unnecessary hyphens.

  6. Percentages

    • Use numerals + the percent sign: %.
    • Do not spell out “percent.”

  7. Time

    • Use numerals + lowercase letters with periods: 9 a.m., 6 p.m.
    • Put a space between the number and the time indicator: 9 a.m.
    • Exceptions: noon and midnight
      • Allowed: 12 p.m. or noon, midnight (or 12 a.m. is discussed)
      • Avoid redundant forms like “12 noon” or “12 midnight.”

  8. Organizations and acronyms

    • Spell out the full organization name on first reference, then use the acronym later.
    • If the organization is better known by its acronym, you may use the acronym immediately (examples noted: FBI, CIA), but the speaker says this is rare.

  9. Capitalization (proper nouns vs common nouns)

    • Capitalize proper nouns: specific people, places, institutions, and named items.
    • If used as a common noun (generic, not a specific named entity), use lowercase.
    • “When in doubt, use lowercase.”

  10. Addresses

    • With a specific address, abbreviate street types:
      • street → st.
      • avenue → ave.
      • boulevard → blvd.
    • Without an exact address (just a street name), do not abbreviate (e.g., main street, south avenue).
    • Numbered streets:
      • First–Ninth: spell out (e.g., ninth Street).
      • 10th and above: use numerals + th (e.g., 10th Street).
    • With exact addresses, compass points like north/south/east/west can be abbreviated if shown in the example.

  11. States

    • Spell out state names: New York, Pennsylvania (not NY).
    • Spell out United States when it’s used as a noun the first time.
    • Use U.S. when it’s:
      • An adjective (e.g., U.S. Department of Justice)
      • Or in later references.

  12. Websites / URLs

    • Use the website name, not the full URL:
      • YouTube, not YouTube.com
      • New York Times, not nytimes.com
    • The URL is treated like an “address,” while style prefers referring to the source name (the website name).

  13. Punctuation (periods and lists)

    • Use one space after a period at the end of a sentence.
    • No serial (Oxford) comma in a list.

  14. Quotations

    • Standard quote punctuation rules:
      • Put quotation marks at the start and end of the quote.
      • Punctuation goes inside the quotation marks (as illustrated).

  15. Money

    • Use numerals for dollar amounts and include the $ sign for the amount.
    • Use cents, million, billion, trillion, etc. as appropriate (with examples shown).
    • For amounts of $1 million or more, spell out (e.g., million/billion/etc.) rather than compressing.

Closing advice / takeaways

  • These rules can feel “annoying and difficult” at first, but improvement comes from:
    • Reading and rereading the AP “Top 15” list
    • Practicing with AP style quizzes

Speakers / sources featured

  • Speaker: Professor Mark Grabowski (referred to as “professor” throughout)
  • Source referenced (organizational): The Associated Press (AP) and the Associated Press Stylebook (described as the rule source)
  • Other style systems mentioned for comparison: APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Oxford (mentioned generally, not used as sources)

Original video