JRNL 1100 AP Style

capitalize titles

capitalize title preceding a name

ex. He said President Barack Obama will meet with Vice President Joe Biden tomorrow.

He met Auburn City Engineer William Fendley.

The list included Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

lowercase titles

lowercase titles standing alone or following a name,

always lowercase presidency

ex. The president will meet with the vice president tomorrow.

The Auburn city engineer will...

William Fendley, Auburn city engineer, will...

Robert Gates, defense secretary,...

The defense secretary said...

placement of long titles

place long titles after the name,

ex. Felicia Mason, executive director of the Alabama Press Association, and Anne-Katrin Gramberg, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, went...

occupational and false titles

lowercase occupational (job descriptions) or false titles,

astronaut is not a formal title so don't capitalize when used before a name,

lowercase professor before a name so don't continue in second reference unless part of a quotation,

ex. ...and gardener John C. Jones

...included rookie left-handed pitcher Bill Bryant

The speaker was defense attorney John K. Paul

capitalize certain things

capitalize Union, Republic, Colonies when referring to the United States,

also capitalize Republic of Korea, French Fifth Republic

capitalize certain things

capitalize Congress, State, House, Cabinet, Legislature when referring to the United States or specific individual state body,

ex. the building in Washington (or Montgomery) is the Capitol. The city is the capital.

capitalize committee

capitalize committee in full names

ex. The Senate Judiciary Committee met at noon.

The House Ways and Means Committee recessed.

lowercase committee and commission

lowercase committee standing alone,

lowercase subcommittee in all cases,

ex. The committee recessed early. The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on rules meets tomorrow.

lowercase commission standing alone

capitalize organizations

capitalize complete names of organizations,

ex. Birmingham Junior Chamber of Commerce, Interstate Commerce Commission,

EXCEPTION ex. Kappa Theta fraternity

capitalize certain courts

capitalize Supreme Court, 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Juvenile Court, District Court

It is Juvenile Court Judge not Juvenile Judge

capitalize Social Security things

capitalize Social Security Administration and Social Security Act when referring to the U.S. system

capitalize military branches

capitalize Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, National Guard when referring to the United States,

lowercase soldier, sailor, leatherneck, but capitalize Marine Coast Guardsman

capitalize holidays, historic events, ecclesiastical feasts, fast days, special events, hurricanes, typhoons

Mother's Day, Labor Day, Battle of the Bulge, Good Friday, Passover, Ash Wednesday, Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, National Safety Week, Hurricane Henry, Typhoon Tilda, New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, April Fools' Day, Groundhog Day

lowercase: What will the "new year" bring? At the start of the "new year," we...

capitalize specific regions

Middle East, Mideast, Middle West, Texas Panhandle, Orient, Chicago's South Side, Lower Manhattan, Deep South, Florida Panhandle...

capitalize ideological and political areas

East-West relations, East Germany

lowercase mere direction: west Alabama, central Alabama

capitalize political parties

Democratic Party, Democrat, Republican Party, Republican, Socialist, Communist, Independent...

lowercase: democratic form of government, republican system, socialism, communism, party when standing alone

capitalize "Red" when used as a political, geographical or military unit

capitalize names of fraternal organizations and civic clubs

Knights of Columbus, American Legion, Lions Club, Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club

newspaper names

capitalize "The" in the newspaper's name if that is the way the publication prefers to be known.

Don't place name in quotes.

Lowercase "the" before the newspaper names if a story mentions several papers, some of which use "the" in the name and some of which do not.

Where location is needed, but is not part of the official name, use parentheses: The Huntsville (Ala.) Times

capitalize religious things

capitalize God, the Father, the Son, the Son of God, the Redeemer, the Holy Spirit, the Lord, Allah

lowercase: he, his, him, who, whose, whom

capitalize Bible, Quran, Talmud and all names of the Bible and all name of all organized religious movements

capitalize Satan and Hades

lowercase: heaven, hell, devil

capitalize wars

capitalize Civil War, War Between the States, Korean War, Revolutionary War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, Revolution (when referring to the Revolutionary War or the Bolshevik Revolution)

capitalize the names of races

capitalize Caucasian, Chinese, Native American

lowercase: black, yellow, white, red

use racial identification only when pertinent

don't use racially derogatory terms unless they are part of a quotation that is essential to a story

capitalize the common noun as part of the formal name

capitalize Hoover Dam, Missouri River, Lee County Courthouse

lowercase: river, dam, courthouse, etc. when standing alone

capitalize certain places

capitalize Empire State Building, Hyatt House, Rainbow Room, Wall Street, Pershing Square, etc.

capitalize trade names and trademark names

capitalize Coca-Cola, Deepfreeze, Xerox

"Coke" should be used only when referring to the specific product

street, road, avenue when plural

lowercase street, road, avenue when plural

ex. Broad and Main streets

capitalize names of organizations and expositions

capitalize Boy Scouts, Red Cross, World's Fair, Alabama State Fair

lowercase scout, fair when standing alone

capitalize and place in quotations titles

capitalize and place in quotations titles of books, plays, poems, speeches, songs, movies, operas, works of art

ex. "Tom Sawyer," "My Fair Lady," "Mona Lisa"

EXCEPTION: Don't put the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material in quotations, magazines and newspapers aren't put in quotations

The words "a," "an," "in," "of," "the," etc. are capitalized only if they are the first or last word of a title

capitalize the first word of a quotation which comes after a comma or a colon and which makes a complete sentence

ex. He said, "Omit needless words."

capitalize fanciful nicknames

ex. Tigers, Crimson Tide, Sunshine State, Old Glory, the Magic City, the Big Apple, Sin City

capitalize decorations, medals, awards

Silver Star, Purple Heart, Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize in Physics, Medal of Honor (not Congressional Medal of Honor), Presidential Medal of Freedom (not Medal of Freedom)

capitalize City Council, County Commission, Department of Education, etc when referencing a specific one

ex. The City Council voted... (meaning Auburn), The County Commission voted... (meaning Lee County), The Department of Education... (meaning Alabama Department of Education)

lowercase if condensed to council, commission, department

capitalize periods in history

ex. Ice Age, Middle Ages, etc.

DONT capitalize

seasons, fields of study

abbreviations

in general spell out name of firms, organizations and groups on first mention, abbreviate thereafter if there is a commonly know abbreviation

ex. The American Civil Liberties Union announced... ACLU had been..., American Federation of Television and Radio Artists... AFTRA announced...

abbreviate time zones when used with specific time

ex. ... at 9:30 a.m. CDT on Friday

spell out when specific time is not given

Auburn is on Central Daylight Savings Time, Auburn is in the Central time sone, Auburn is on daylight savings time

abbreviate names of business firms if the firm in question does so

ex. Warner Bros., Brown Implement Co., Amalgamated Leather Ltd., Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Smith & Sons Inc., J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

addresses

in addresses that include the number, abbreviate St., Ave., Blvd

spell out others at all times including road, drive, place, circle, lane, terrace

addresses and numbers

if number is not included spell out Street, Avenue, Boulevard

if number is given abbreviate N., S., E., W., NW, SE, NE, SW

if number is not given spell out North, South, East, West, Northwest, etc

ex. 100 Cox St. SW, 9 S. Gay St., 3 E. Magnolia Ave., 8 Eighth Ave. SW, 80 Jefferson Blvd., Cox Street, South Gay Street, East Magnolia Avenue, Eighth Avenue Southwest, Jefferson Boulevard

lowercase abbreviations that do not involve proper names, those that spell words take periods

ex. c.o.d. (cash on delivery), f.o.b.

EXCEPTION: 35 mm film, 105 mm howitzer, mph, mpg

abbreviate versus with a period

vs. or v. (for law cases)

standard abbreviations for states

Alaska, Hawaii, and states with fewer than six letters NEVER get abbreviated (Idaho, Ohio, Texas, Maine, Iowa, Utah)

spell out state names in body of stories

datelines use abbreviations (dateline is a geographic identifier at the beginning of a news article or new release)

the name of a city, town, military bases, etc. is followed by an abbreviation of a state name

state abbreviations used with short form identification of political party affiliation (ex. D-Ala, R-Mont.)

punctuation for states

place one comma between city and state name, and another comma after state name, UNLESS ending a sentence

ex. He was traveling from Nashville, Tennessee, to Austin, Texas, en route to his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

abbreviate United States and United Nations in titles and when used as adjectives

ex. U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.N. headquarters, U.S. foreign policy

states that take abbreviations

Ala.

Ariz.

Ark.

Calif.

Colo.

Conn.

Del.

Fla.

Ga.

Ill.

Ind.

Kan.

Ky.

La.

Md.

Mass.

Mich.

Minn.

Miss.

Mo.

Mont.

Neb.

Nev.

N.C.

N.D.

N.H.

N.J.

N.M.

N.Y.

Okla.

Ore.

Pa.

R.I.

S.C.

S.D.

Tenn.

Vt.

Va.

Wash.

W. Va.

Wis.

Wyo.

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.

North Carolina

N. C.

North Dakota

N. D.

New Hampshire

N. H.

New Jersey

N. J.

New Mexico

N. M.

New York

N. Y.

Oklahoma

Okla.

Oregon

Ore.

Pennsylvania

Pa.

Rhode Island

R. I.

South Carolina

S. C.

South Dakota

S. D.

Tennessee

Tenn.

Vermont

Vt.

Virginia

Va.

Washington

Wash.

West Virginia

W. Va.

Wisconsin

Wis.

Wyoming

Wyo.

months that are abbreviated

Jan.

Feb.

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

always spell out March, April, May, June, July

must be full date to abbreviate

if calendar date is missing don't abbreviate

abbreviate months only when used with a calendar date

ex. ...return Feb. 3., ...started in February 1945., ...started Feb. 19, 1945, when...

do NOT abbreviate days of the week

they are always capitalized and never abbreviated

do NOT abbreviate (give nickname) a persons name unless they do so

ex. Liz for Elizabeth, Ben for Benjamin

titles and names

the full name of a person normally is used only once in a news story and that is upon first mention,

use last name only on second mention

professional titles normally are used on first mention either before or following the name

ex. Dr. Jay Gouge of Auburn University..., Dr. Anne-Katrin Gramberg, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, has...

do NOT abbreviate, UNLESS before a name

president, vice president, association, detective, department, deputy, assistant, commandant, manager, general manager, secretary, treasurer, professor, district attorney, attorney general, superintendent, Christmas

titles that should be abbreviated when appearing before a name

Sen., Rep., Gov., Lt., the Rev., Dr., and police and military titles

if abbreviated title is used it is always placed immediately before the name and the full name is used

CORRECT ex. Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey..., Gov. Robert Bentley...

INCORRECT ex. Lt. Gov. Ivey..., Gov. Bentley

spell out and lowercase all titles used after the name or standing alone

The lieutenant governor told members..., The senator urged his colleagues..., The president spoke to the nation...

courtesy titles (Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms.) are not used unless in direct quotations or someone specifically requests to have a courtesy title used

refer to both men and women by full name on first mention,

stories where people have the same last name first and last names may be repeated where necessary for clarity, or courtesy titles may not be used

if gender isn't clear from first and last names don't use courtesy titles just use name,

use Mrs. only if a woman requests her husband's first name be used

military and police title abbreviations

always spell out "Fort"

always spell out 1st, 2nd at start of a sentence

general

Gen.

lieutenant general

Lt. Gen.

major general

Maj. Gen.