Highlights
- In general, avoid unnecessary capitalization.
- The title Dr. is used only for medical doctors, not someone with a doctorate.
- In general, formal titles are capitalized only when they precede a name, not after. This includes “Barack Obama, president of the United States.”
- Use a hyphen for both first-grader and first-grade student.
- Use figures for numbers of 10 and higher, except when they begin a sentence.
- In a series of items, AP style calls for no comma before the final “and,” such as in “red, white and blue.”
- Periods and commas are always placed within quotation marks, never outside.
Common Style Errors in News Releases
- 4 p.m., not 4:00 p.m.
- 2013–14, not 2013–2014
- After the Center for the Study of Snowboarding has been introduced, use “center” on second reference, not “Center.”
- The word “university” is not capitalized when used by itself.
- After Professor John Smith has been introduced use “Smith” on second reference, not “Professor Smith.”
- When introducing multiple professors, make “professors” lowercase, as in “professors John Smith, John Jones and Jim Johnson.”
- Corporation is always abbreviated as Corp. Company is always abbreviated as Co. And if a company name ends in Inc., Co. or Corp. do not set it off by a comma.
- A premiere is a first performance. Premier means first in importance or rank.
- Underway is always one word.
- Do not capitalize the word city in “city of” phrases such as “city of Boulder.”