AP Style Guide Cheat Sheet
Associated Press Style
Quick Reference Guide
● To subscribe to The Associated Press Stylebook online, or to find out about purchasing hard copies of the book, start here.
● To find out about StyleGuard for Word, start here.
● For slide presentations of AP Style basics, go here.
Style
Rules
Examples
Academic degrees ● Use an apostrophe and spell out academic degrees
She has a bachelor’s degree.
● Use abbreviations for degrees only when you need to include a list of credentials after a name; set them off with commas.
Peter White, LL.D., Ph.D., was the keynote speaker. Acronyms
● Don’t use them
● Spell out on first mention. On subsequent mentions, use generic terms such as the board, the division, etc.
● Don’t put acronyms in parentheses after the first reference (for example, “The Water Quality Control Division (WQCD) …”).
The state Board of Health meets the third
Wednesday of each month. The board’s agenda is available about a week before the meeting. Addresses
● Spell out all generic parts of street names (avenue, north, road) when no specific address is given.
Our main campus is on Cherry Creek South
Drive.
● When a number is used, abbreviate avenue (Ave.), boulevard
(Blvd.), street (St.) and directional parts of street names.
The suspect was identified as Michael Shawn of 1512 N. Mission St.
CDPHE | AP Styl e Qui ck Reference
1
Capitalization
● Do not capitalize federal, state, department, division, board, program, section, unit, etc., unless the word is part of a formal name. ● Capitalize common nouns such as party, river and street when they are part of a proper name.
● Capitalize the word room when used with the number of the room or when part of the name of a specially designated room
● Lowercase directional indicators except when they refer to specific geographic regions or popularized names for those regions.
● Capitalize formal titles that come directly before a name.
● Lowercase formal titles that appear on their own or follow a name.
Quick Reference Guide
● To subscribe to The Associated Press Stylebook online, or to find out about purchasing hard copies of the book, start here.
● To find out about StyleGuard for Word, start here.
● For slide presentations of AP Style basics, go here.
Style
Rules
Examples
Academic degrees ● Use an apostrophe and spell out academic degrees
She has a bachelor’s degree.
● Use abbreviations for degrees only when you need to include a list of credentials after a name; set them off with commas.
Peter White, LL.D., Ph.D., was the keynote speaker. Acronyms
● Don’t use them
● Spell out on first mention. On subsequent mentions, use generic terms such as the board, the division, etc.
● Don’t put acronyms in parentheses after the first reference (for example, “The Water Quality Control Division (WQCD) …”).
The state Board of Health meets the third
Wednesday of each month. The board’s agenda is available about a week before the meeting. Addresses
● Spell out all generic parts of street names (avenue, north, road) when no specific address is given.
Our main campus is on Cherry Creek South
Drive.
● When a number is used, abbreviate avenue (Ave.), boulevard
(Blvd.), street (St.) and directional parts of street names.
The suspect was identified as Michael Shawn of 1512 N. Mission St.
CDPHE | AP Styl e Qui ck Reference
1
Capitalization
● Do not capitalize federal, state, department, division, board, program, section, unit, etc., unless the word is part of a formal name. ● Capitalize common nouns such as party, river and street when they are part of a proper name.
● Capitalize the word room when used with the number of the room or when part of the name of a specially designated room
● Lowercase directional indicators except when they refer to specific geographic regions or popularized names for those regions.
● Capitalize formal titles that come directly before a name.
● Lowercase formal titles that appear on their own or follow a name.