Here’s a take: How you write is just as important as what you write. Let’s be honest, if your reading is too grammatically butchered to comprehend- your reader is long gone.

AP style is a beast of its own. That’s the style used in journalism. While its features are not always used for easier comprehension, using AP style shows a level of education and care put into the craft. It builds your credibility.

So, here’s a list of some super important AP style features, some of my personal favorites and some pet peeves:

Active vs. Passive Voice

Always use active voice. That’s when the subject is performing the action. In passive voice, the action is being done to the subject. It’s clunky. It’s confusing. Don’t do it.

Adjectives and Adverbs

Generally, descriptive words shouldn’t be used in AP style. It could lead to issues with objectivity and it’s typically unnecessary. Plus, if you pick a descriptive verb, you shouldn’t need the adverb. 

Qualifiers

Be confident in what you write. Adding phrases like a little, kind of or very make your writing wordier and weaker. I did have an issue with adding these to more personal writing. (See some of my old blogs for reference) Ever since one of my classmates called me out on it, I’m more aware, and my writing is better because of it.

Formatting Quotes

In my time editing other’s work, I’ve seen all sorts of punctuation when it comes to quotations. Your punctuation always goes inside the quotation marks. 

When your source interrupts your quote, add a comma to the end of the first half of the quote, then a period after the source. Continue the rest of the quote after the period.

AP Style
… the exam,” Smith said. “We won’t…

Also, your source always comes before the verb.

The Oxford Comma

This is where AP style loses me. The oxford comma is the comma you put before the conjunction, like and, in a list. AP style doesn’t use it. I was always an oxford comma fan, and while I’ve trained myself to not use it, I still love her. I’m a big fan of consistency, so I’d like all list items to have some form of punctuation after them. I think it also can help the reader to understand that the list continues.

There’s a plethora of more rules you can find in the AP stylebook. I keep mine on my desk at all times, and still consult it pretty frequently. It’s a great reference.

This post is written by a human, and made as a comparison to an AI generated blog post. The AI generated one is titled “Mastering AP Style: Key Rules Every Writer Should Know (Generated by AI)” and can be found on the blog page.