THE AP CHEAT SHEET

Abbreviations
Commonly recognized abbreviations are used as is (NASA, FBI, CIA), but
for lesser known, spell out the full name at first mention.
Abbreviate junior or senior directly after a name, with no comma to set it
off.
Juan de la Cruz Jr.
Use abbreviations for degrees only when you need to include a list of
credentials after a name; set them off with commas
Peter Parker, LL.D., Ph.D., was the keynote speaker.
Spell out the name of a month when it is used without a specific date.
April is the hottest month of the year.
Abbreviate months with six or more letters if they are used with a specific
date.
She was born on Sept. 28.
 Spell out months with five or fewer letters
Do not open the envelope until May 15.
Spell out titles used alone.
Miriam Defensor-Santiago is the only senator that can do that!
Abbreviate and capitalize most titles when they are used directly before a
name.
Sen. Legarda is very proud of her son. Gen. Espina is visibly
heartbroken
Spell out all generic parts of street names (avenue, north, road) when no
specific address is given
The festival will be held on South Charles Street.
When a number is used, abbreviate avenue (Ave.), boulevard (Blvd.),
street (St.) and directional parts of street names.
The suspect was identified as Michael Lopez of 2949 Bangkusay St.,
Tondo, Manila.
 When writing news stories, never abbreviate:
The days of the week.
Percent as %.
Cents as .
And as & unless it is an official part of a name.
Christmas as Xmas.

For ages, always use figures. If the age is used as an adjective or as a

substitute for a noun, then it should be hyphenated. Dont use
apostrophes when describing an age range.
A 21-year-old student. The student is 21 years old. The girl, 8, has a
brother, 11. The contest is for 18-year-olds. He is in his 20s.
 Capitalization
Capitalize common nouns such as party, river and street when they are
part of a proper name for place, person or thing.
The Liberal Party, the Pasig River
Lowercase common nouns when they stand alone or in subsequent
references
The party did not have a candidate for president. She nearly drowned
in the river.
Lowercase all plural uses of common nouns.
The Libertarian and Green parties, the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.
Lowercase the names of the seasons unless they are used in a proper
name.
The Summer Olympics. The Winter Games. See you in summer. I
would love to travel in the winter.
 Lowercase directional indicators except when they refer to specific
geographic regions or popularized names for those regions
The South also has big malls to speak of. Alabang is in the south.
The Midwest is always considered more laid-back.
Lowercase formal titles that appear on their own or follow a name (in the
latter case, they should be set off by commas). Capitalize formal titles that
come directly before a name.
The students were delighted when they heard they would meet
President Aquino. But the president was a no-show.
Never capitalize job descriptions
police officer, attorney, architect,
 Numbers
In general, spell out numbers one through nine and use figures for numbers
10 on up. But here are common exceptions :
Addresses: 7 Park Place.
Centavos: 8 centavos.
Peso/Dollars: $3. Notice that AP style does not include a period and two
zeroes when referring to an even dollar figure.
Dates: March 4. Notice that dates take cardinal numbers, not ordinal
numbers (dont use 4th).
Dimensions: 5 foot 2, 5-by-9 cell. Spell out words such as feet, miles.
Highways: Route 7.
Millions, billions: 6 billion people.
Percentages: 1 percent. Notice that percent is one word.
Speed: 8 mph.
Temperatures: 2 degrees.
 Spell out numbers used at the beginning of a sentence: Ten
thousand people marched on the capital. Exception: Never spell
out years: 1999 was a terrible year for technology companies.
Use commas to set off each group of three digits in numerals higher
than 999 (except for years and addresses): 12,650.
Use decimals (up to two places) for amounts in the millions and
billions that do not require a precise figure: $3.74 billion.
Add an s but no apostrophe to a number to make it plural: She
kept rolling 7s. The same rule applies to decades: the 1980s. Use
an apostrophe on a decade only if cutting off the initial figures: the
80s.
Use roman numerals to describe wars and to show sequences for
people. Examples: World War II, Pope John Paul II, Elizabeth II.
For ordinal numbers, spell out first through ninth and use figures
for 10th and above when describing order in time or location.
Examples: second base, 10th in a row.
 Books, periodicals, reference works
Use quotation marks for titles of books, songs, television shows, computer
games, poems, lectures, speeches and works of art.
Author E.L. James read to the waiting students from her book Fifty
Shades of Grey. They sang Lupang Hinirang before the boxing bout.
Do not use quotation marks for names of magazine, newspapers, the Bible
or books that are catalogues of reference materials.
The Washington Post first reported the story. He reads the Bible every
morning.
 Names

Always use a persons first and last name the first time
they are mentioned in a story. Only use last names on
second reference.
Do not use courtesy titles such as Mr., Mrs.,
Miss or Ms. unless they are part of a direct quotation.
Second and following references to a married couple
should refer to them as Mr. And Mrs.: Mr. and Mrs.
Oakes will honeymoon in Las Vegas.
In stories in which two people share the last name, use
full names on each reference.
 Time

When including time in a story, use figures, but spell

out noon and midnight.
Use a colon to separate hours from minutes, but do not
use :00.
1 p.m., 3:30 a.m.
Time should be expressed as a figure followed by a.m. or
p.m.: 8:33 p.m.
Do not add other words (night, morning, and so on) to
distinguish between day and night. Use noon or midnight
rather than 12 p.m. or 12 a.m.
 Titles

Capitalize formal titles when they appear before a persons name.

President Obama. Vice President Binay.

Lowercase titles if they are informal, appear without a persons name,

follow a persons name or are set off before a name by commas.
Binay, the vice president, will undergo Senate inquiry.
 Dates
Commas are not necessary if only a year and month are given.
June, 2015
Use commas if the date, month and year are given.
January 30, 1966
Use the letter s but not an apostrophe after the figures when expressing
decades or centuries.
The 1980s. The 90s.
If you refer to an event that occurred the day prior to when the article will
appear, do not use the word yesterday. Instead, use the day of the week.
Capitalize days of the week, but do not abbreviate.
If an event occurs more than seven days before or after the current date,
use the month and a figure.
 Technological Terms
download
eBay Inc. (use EBay Inc. when the word begins a sentence)
e-book, e-book reader, e-reader
email
cellphone
Facebook, Google, Googling, Googled
hashtag
Internet (after first reference, the Net)
iPad, iPhone, iPod (use IPad, IPhone, or IPod when the word begins a sentence)
LinkedIn
social media
smartphone
the Net
Twitter, tweet, tweeted, retweet
World Wide Web, website, web page
YouTube
 Punctuation
Use a single space after a period.

Do not use commas before a conjunction in a simple series. A simple

series is defined as one in which no elements contain the words and or or
In art class, they learned that red, yellow and blue are primary colors.
His brothers are Tom, Joe, Frank and Pete.
The menu offered a choice of bacon and eggs, pancakes, or waffles.

Use comma before the terminal conjunction in a complex series, if part of

that series also contains a conjunction.
Purdue University's English Department offers doctoral majors in
Literature, Second Language Studies, English Language and Linguistics,
and Rhetoric and Composition.
 Commas and periods go within quotation marks.
I did nothing wrong, he said. She said, Lets go to the Purdue game.

Use a semicolon to clarify a series that includes a number of commas.

Include a semicolon before the conjunction.
Parts for the carrier are made in Tampa, Fla.; Austin, Texas; and Baton
Rouge, La.

Use hyphens to link all the words in a compound adjective.

The five-volume report called for cleaning up the area over a 10-year
period.

Do not use a hyphen if the construction includes very or an adverb ending

in ly
a very big project, barely legal procedures.
 Periods with quotes: Periods always go inside
quotation marks. He said, It was Gods will.
Will she run again? No never.
Periods with parentheses: If the parenthetical
material is not a sentence, the period goes
outside the parentheses. He smiled (with his
eyes). If the parenthetical material is a
sentence, the period goes inside the
parentheses. (He smiled with his eyes.)
 Plurals
To form a plural of a single letter, use s and an apostrophe: All the
Bs lined up to the right.
To form a plural of multiple letters, add s with no apostrophe: She
mastered her ABCs in little time.
To form the plural of words made out of a group of letters, add the
letter s: CDs, ABCs, TVs.
Apostrophes
plurals of lowercase letters (e.g., dot your is and cross your ts)
plurals of certain words used as words (e.g., we need to tally the
yess, nos, and maybes)
plurals of certain abbreviations (e.g., the staff includes a dozen
Ph.D.s and four M.D.s).