The makings of a word whiz combine both knowledge and skill. While creative ability may link to our DNA, translating artistic thought requires study and practice.
Bloggers, journalists and copywriters from all industries turn to the Associated Press for its golden writing rule book, the AP Stylebook. I compiled a list of the most common AP style rules I utilize when writing blog posts and marketing copy. Bookmark this page to refer back to in times of a copywriting crunch, or download it for free here! Happy blogging!
The AP Style Cheat Sheet for Bloggers
Capitalization
- Capitalize proper nouns: Bill Clinton, New York City, Baby Boomers
- Capitalize days of the week + months of the year
- Capitalize product names: Styrofoam, Band-Aid, Dumpster, Frisbee, iPod, Jell-O, Kitty Litter, Scotch tape, Vaseline, Velcro, Windbreaker
- Capitalize races, but not colors: Caucasian, white; African American, black
- Capitalize the first word following a colon if the word begins a complete sentence
- For book titles, games, movies, poems, etc. capitalize main words, conjunctions and prepositions of four or more letters and the first and last words
Numbers
- Write out numbers one through nine
- Write numbers 10 and above numerically
- Always use numerals with address, ages, clothing sizes, dates, dimensions, money, percentages, recipes, speed, sports, temperatures, times, weights and years: size 8, 100 degrees, 21 years old
- Write out million, billion and trillion
- Spell out percent
- Use numerals for amounts less than a dollar and write out cents: 22 cents
- Use the $ sign and decimals for amounts more than a dollar: $2.50
- Write out fractions of less than one: one-half, one-third
- Use numerals with fractions larger than one: 1 ½
- Write odds with the smaller number first: 1 in 100
- Use numerals with dimensions, but write out units: 6 feet tall, 11 inches wide
Days + Dates
- Days of the week are written out: Monday, Tuesday
- Abbreviate months that preface a specific day: Feb. 2, 2015
- Never abbreviate months with five letters or less: March, April, May, June and July
- Write in a time-day-place format: Around noon last Saturday, I was sitting in Starbucks…
States + Addresses
- Abbreviate states only when they follow a city: Detroit, Mich.
- Never abbreviate states with six letters or less: Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Utah, Texas, Iowa, Idaho and Ohio
- Write out street, avenue, boulevard and lane when present without a number: Main Street
- Abbreviate street, avenue and boulevard when present with a number: 123 Main St.
Punctuation
- Place commas and periods inside quotation marks
- Use a comma to join independent clauses with a conjunction: I like pizza, but I also like burgers.
- Use a comma after a dependent clause and before an independent clause: Because it rained, I didn't go out for pizza.
- Use a comma after an introductory word or phrase: All of the sudden, pizza fell from the sky.
- Use a comma to introduce a quote of one sentence: He said, “I really love eating pizza in my PJs.”
- Use a colon to introduce a list or join two similar clauses: The time has come: I need pizza.
- Use a semicolon between two independent clauses instead of a conjunction
- Use a dash for a dramatic pause: Oh no – what happened to the pizza?
- Use a dash instead of commas to interject a sentence: She ate pizza, chicken strips and – to top it all off – a big bowl of ice cream.
- Use hyphens between two compound modifiers: the much-loved teacher
Titles*
*Please note that my use of italics here only follows my pattern of italicizing rule examples. None of the below examples should be italicized in practice.
- Use quotation marks for titles of movies, books and TV shows: “The Walking Dead,” “How to Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Hunger Games”
- Names of magazines and newspapers need no special punctuation: The New York Times
Common Confusion
- Who vs. that: Use who for people and pets with names; use that for everything else
- Who vs. whom: Use who if the sentence would use he/she, whom if the sentence would use him/her
- Less vs. fewer: Use fewer with things you can count individually: I need fewer sweaters; Use less with things you can’t count and that aren’t pluralized: I need less furniture
- Affect vs. effect: Affect is a verb, and effect is a noun: Global warming has affected us so much, it’s resulted in an effect of more recycling
Check out these handy references to make the most out of your writing potential:
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