AP Style

Abbreviations and acronyms

Don’t use that reader won’t quickly recognize

Acceptable abbreviations

FBI, EU, US, CIA, IRS, NASA, NATO, COVID, for example

Abbreviations before names

Abbreviate titles when used before a full name: Dr., Gov., Lt. Gov., Rep., the Rev., Sen. and certain military designations

Abbreviations after names 

Abbreviate junior or senior after an individual’s name. Abbreviate company, corporation, incorporated and limited when used after the name of a corporate entity.

Academic degree abbreviations

Academic degrees (like Ph.D.) can sometimes be abbreviated after names.

Dates & numerals abbreviations

Use A.D., B.C. (or C.E., B.C.E.), a.m., p.m., No., and abbreviate certain months (Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.), when used with day of month.

Addresses

Use abbreviations (Ave., Blvd., & St.) only w/ numbered addresses. Use figures for addresses.

Ages

Use when deemed relevant to situation. (profiles, obituaries, significant milestones unusual for the age). Always use figures for number. Hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives (5-year-old boy).

Burglary

Involves entering a building (not necessarily breaking in) and remaining unlawfully wit the intention of committing a crime.

Larceny

Wrongful taking if property in legal terms (aka stealing or theft).

Robbery

Legally, use of violence or threat in committing larceny. Broadly, plunder or rifle even if person isn’t present. 

Theft

Larceny that doesn’t involve threat, violence, or plundering.

Capitalization

Avoid unnecessary capitals. Use for proper nouns that are a unique id for a specific person, pace, or thing. Use for proper names, popular names, family names, informal names, and titles before names. Capitalize first word in every sentence.

City council

Capitalize when part of proper name (Boston City Council), but lowercase in other uses. 

Composition titles

Capitalize all words except articles, prepositions of three or fewer letters, and conjunctions of three or fewer letters unless any of those start or end the title.

Congress

Capitalize U.S. Congress and Congress when referring to U.S. Senate and House of Reps. Capitalize if referring to foreign body that uses the term. Lowercase when used as regular noun or in second reference to an org that uses that word.

congressman, congresswoman

Use only in reference to member of the House of Representatives, but representative or member of Congress are preferred. Should appear as capitalized formal titles before a name only in a direct quotation.

Courtesy titles

Don’t use unless in direct quotes

Court names

capitalize full proper names of courts at all levels. Retain capitalization if U.S. or state name is dropped. Used figures if identified by a numeral.

Datelines

Contain a place name (entirely in capitals), followed by name of state, country, or territory where the city is located. Some major U.S. & foreign cities don’t need a country/state. Spell out Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah, but abbreviate others.

Dimensions

Use figures and spell out inches, feet, yards, etc., to indicate depth, height, length and width.

Directions and regions

Lowercase compass directions, but capitalize when they designate proper/common names for regions (the East, Southern California, northern France).

Doctor

Use Dr. in first reference as formal title for medical doctors. Don’t use for other types of doctoral degrees

Dollars

Always lowercase. Use figures & $ in all except references or amounts without a figure. For specified amounts, the word takes a singular verb. For amounts of more than $1 million, use up to two decimal places ($4.45 million).

Drunk, drunken, drunkenness

Drunk is the spelling of the adjective used after a form of the verb to be.

Drunken is the spelling of the adjective used before nouns.

DUI, driving under the influence.

Ellipsis

treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word, constructed with three periods and two spaces ( … )

Federal

Use a capital letter for the architectural style and for corporate or governmental bodies that use the word as part of their formal names. Lowercase when used as an adjective to distinguish something from state, county, city, town or private entities.

Felony

Felony is a serious crime. Misdemeanor is a minor offense against the law. Depends on governmental jurisdiction involved. At federal level, misdemeanor is crime that carries no more than year in jail and felony is more than a year.

Fractions

Spell out amounts less than 1, using hyphens between words. Use figures for precise amounts larger than 1, converting to decimals whenever practical. When using fractional characters, use forward-slash mark.

Geographic names

Do not use postal abbreviations for state names. Use foreign place names as in Merriam-Webster.

Governmental bodies

Capitalize full proper names of governmental agencies, depts, & offices. Lowercase condensation of a name (the department or the council). Don’t capitalize if plural or don’t refer to specific body. 

Holidays and holy days

Capitalize holidays. Federal legal holiday: federal employees receive the day off or paid overtime if they must work. Other requirements that apply to holidays are left to states.

Homicide, murder, manslaughter

Homicide: legal term for killing

Murder is malicious premeditated homicide

Manslaughter is homicide without malice or premeditation 

• Can’t describe homicide as murder unless person has been convicted

House of Representatives

Capitalize when referring to specific govt body

Italics

Don’t use

Judge

Capitalize before name when its formal title but don’t use in second reference

Junior, senior

Abbreviate as Jr. & Sr.

Last

Avoid as synonym for latest if it implies finality. Word isn’t necessary to convey most recent when w/ day or month

Lawyer

Generic term for all members of the bar.

Attorney: someone legally appointed/empowered to act for another (can mean a lawyer but isn’t always)

Counselor: person who conducts a case in court, usually, but not always, a lawyer

Solicitor: lawyer employed by a govt. body

Legislative titles

Use Rep., Reps., Sen. and Sens as formal titles before one or more names upon first reference 

miles per hour

The abbreviation mph is acceptable in all references. No hyphen when used with a figure

Months

Capitalize names of months in all uses. When used w/ a specific date, abbreviate only. When phrase lists only month & year, don’t separate year with commas. 

Numerals

Spell out one through nine in most uses and using figures for 10 or above. Use figures whenever preceding a unit of measure or points, as well as for team records or game numbers