How To Write A Blog In Ap Style

How to Use AP Style for More Polished Blog Posts

Not just for journalists, using AP style can keep your writing consistent and professional

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Associated Press (AP) style is a set of guidelines used for news writing. It is used to keep ensure articles written by different writers are consistent, clear, and accurate. It provides guiding principles for grammar, punctuation, spelling, and language use.

There are numerous AP style rules— over 5,000. You can find them all in the AP stylebook, available for purchase on their website. However, most of us don't need to buy the stylebook to follow AP style. The internet is full of help in using this style of writing.

Why Would You Want to Use AP Style?

Consistentl y following a set of guidelines will keep your blog looking consistent, professional, and clear.

If you're writing for a publication, they'll probably have guidelines you will need to follow — possibly AP style, or some variation of it. Because AP style is so commonly used, it's a good idea to have a basic knowledge of its rules.

But if you write for yourself on your own blog, you may be asking why you should follow AP style. Of course, you don't have to follow it — you have the freedom to write however you want. The truth of the matter is, most of your readers won't know or care if you're following AP style. But they will notice inconsistencies — and inconsistencies get in the way of the message you're trying to convey.

Consistently following a style guide will help keep your blogs:

Reader-friendly.
Clear.
Consistent.
Concise.

You want to give your readers great content. They'll be a lot more likely to read your words of wisdom if you write in a clear and concise style. You don't have to choose AP style, there are lots of other style guides, but it's a common and simple one which readers will find familiar.

Common AP Style Guidelines

This isn't everything, but I'm going to cover the basics of AP style with you here.

Abbreviations for formal titles

When you're writing titles before names, you should abbreviate the title that proceeds the name. Examples include Dr., Sen., Gov., Lt. Gov. Rep., and the Rev.

Addresses

Use numerals for numbered addresses. Use abbreviations for directionals and "Ave.", "St.", and "Blvd." if paired with a numeral. Always spell out "Road," "Alley," and "Drive." If the street name includes a number, spell out "First" through "Ninth," but "10th" and up should be written with a numeral.

See the following examples:

2109 S. 12th St.
South Second Street.
552 N. Grant Drive.
225 E. Janes Blvd.

Capitalization

Always capitalize proper nouns and proper names. Common nouns should be capitalized when they are part of a proper name. For example, don't capitalize "river" by itself, but you do capitalize "Arkansas River." Capitalize the "Democratic Party and President Obama." But you don't need to capitalize "the president spoke to party leaders regarding the new budget."

It gets a little hairy here with common names, as you would capitalize "Pacific Ocean," until it becomes plural — then it's "Pacific and Atlantic oceans."

Dates

Use numerals for dates and years and capitalize months. Spell the month out unless you are using it with a date. And even then you only abbreviate "Jan.", "Feb.", "Aug.", "Sept.", "Oct.", "Nov.", and "Dec."

Use commas when you have a date with the year. Capitalize days of the week and don't abbreviate them.

Here are some examples of dates:

Feb. 22, 1889.
March 19.
The '80s.
The 1600s.
Saturday, Feb. 9, 2020.

Names

Write the full name at the first mention, then only the last name after that. Don't use Mr. or Mrs. before the last name, but if it's a formal title, you should use the abbreviation for that before the last name. For example, it wouldn't be "Mr. Smith," but if your subject is a senator, you would say, "Sen. Smith."

Numbers

Spell out numbers one through nine. 10 up are written as numerals. Always use numerals for money and spell out cents, million, billion, and trillion. And always use numerals for ages — don't spell these out. For example, "she is 7 years old." Use dashes if the age is a noun: "the 7-year-old set up a lemonade stand."

Punctuation

Use a single space after a period. Put your commas and periods inside quotation marks. AP style does not mandate the use the Oxford comma in all circumstances (although you are allowed to use it if it helps the meaning of the sentence). For example, "I like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream" would be correct.

Quotations

For direct quotes, surround the words with quotation marks. Never alter your quote, even to correct grammar. For running paragraph quotes, only use quote marks at the end of the last paragraph.

Social media and Technology

Here's a list of some common terms and how AP style handles them:

Android
Apple
Apple products: iPad, iPhone, iMac, etc.
Facebook
Google
Instagram
internet
LinkedIn
tweet
Twitter
website
YouTube

Time

Use a colon to separate hours from minutes such as "12:34 a.m." Spell out noon and midnight.

Titles

All books, movies, tv shows, recordings, and other works should be surrounded by quotation marks and be in title case. For example "Pride and Prejudice" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

U.S. cities and states

Spell out a state name unless it's paired with a city, then you should abbreviate the state. For example, "Memphis, Tenn."

Do not abbreviate the following states:

Alaska
Hawaii
Idaho
Iowa
Maine
Ohio
Texas
Utah

The following cities can stand alone, without adding their state:

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington.

And here are the state abbreviations:

Alabama: Ala., Arizona: Ariz., Arkansas: Ark., California: Calif., Colorado: Colo., Connecticut: Conn., Delaware: Del., Florida: Fla., Georgia: Ga., Illinois: Ill., Indiana: Ind., Kansas: Kan., Kentucky: Ky., Louisiana: La., Maryland: Md., Massachusetts: Mass., Michigan: Mich., Minnesota: Minn., Mississippi: Miss., Missouri: Mo., Montana: Mont., Nebraska: Neb., Nevada: Nev., New Hampshire: N.H., New Jersey: N.J., New Mexico: N.M., New York: N.Y., North Carolina: N.C., North Dakota: N.D., Oklahoma: Okla., Oregon: Ore., Pennsylvania: Pa., Rhode Island: R.I., South Carolina: S.C., South Dakota: S.D., Tennessee: Tenn., Virginia: Va., Vermont: Vt., Washington: Wash., West Virginia: W. Va., Wisconsin: Wis., and Wyoming: Wyo.

Here is Where I Part Ways With AP Style

Unless I'm writing for a publication that follows strict adherence to the AP style, I go my own way for the following rules.

Bullet points

AP style uses dashes, not bullets. I tend to use whatever the text editor I'm working in supports, which is usually bullet points. And I love bullet points — I've used them multiple times in this article. I think they help break text blocks down and give the reader an easy-to-scan list, perfect for online reading, especially on your phone.

But if you're following AP style, use dashes and don't indent them. After the dash, capitalize the first word and use a period at the end of your sentence.

Headlines

AP style requires only the first word to be capitalized and proper nouns. The rest are in lower case. This is a personal preference, but sentence case for headlines looks unfinished to me. I always go title case for headlines, unless I'm working for a publication that wants sentence case.

Whichever you choose, title case or sentence case, keep it consistent. You don't want to have five blog articles, with all but one of them in title case. As long as you choose one and keep it consistent, your readers probably won't even notice whether it's sentence or title case. But they're likely to notice if you switch it back and forth. Use the Capitalize My Title website to help you.

Oxford comma

I was taught not to use the Oxford comma growing up. It took considerable effort to train myself to use it, as it's required by so many publications. However, AP style does not mandate the use of the Oxford comma in all situations. I'm now firmly in the Oxford comma camp, mainly because it's too much work for me to change back again.

Watch Out For Updates

AP style is constantly updating. In 2014, they changed their rules for state names. In 2017, the word "they" became acceptable to use as a non-gendered pronoun rather than only used for the plural form. In 2019, the AP style guide finally decided that it's OK to use the percentage symbol when paired with a numeral, rather than spelling it out completely.

The bottom line is this — check for the new updates occasionally to be sure you know what's current.

Ultimately, nobody but you can tell what style guide works best for your blog — it comes down to personal preference and the goals you have for your publications. I find that AP style is easy to use and remember because it's so common. But there are other guides, or you could develop your own hybrid.

Following a consistent style will help clear away the clutter and let your content shine.