Why, do so many job postings or Requests For Proposal demand an ability to use AP Style? Most often, it is short hand for, “You have to be able to write better than the average non-professional writer.”
I once heard someone say that photography and writing are the two professions that everyone thinks they can do. From the outside both of them look very simple. After all, all you have to do to get the same picture as Ansel Adams is stand in the same place with the same kind of camera at the same time of day in similar weather. Of course, that isn’t the point. No one cares if you can copy Ansel Adams. What makes him a great photographer is being able to see a great photograph where one hasn’t been seen before.
Writing is similar. Everyone can write. That isn’t the point. Describing what a murder scene looks like doesn’t make you Stephen King, and telling people why you think Microsoft sucks doesn’t make you a professional technology writer.
A professional writer can hide their writing style. More specifically, they can write in the style that is requested. This skill is not common and therefore hard to quantify. Often, it falls into the, “I know it when I see it,” realm. So, when a client is paying good money for professional writing, they default to saying “AP Style” and hope it scares off the average non-professional who doesn’t know what AP style is. I’m not sure that it works, but I suppose it is better than nothing.
Learn AP Style
There are a lot of things in writing that can’t be taught, or that only come with experience, but the AP Style is not one of them. There is an AP Stylebook. Buy it, and flip through it a little. Don’t bother trying to read it cover to cover. It is a reference not a how-to book. Keep it on your desk next to where you write.
As you go about your daily writings, don’t skip over those things you don’t quite know, and don’t guess. If you don’t know whether something should or should not be capitalized, look it up. When you don’t know if that phrase requires a hyphen, or is considered slang, look it up.
In the mean time, that doesn’t mean you can’t make yourself a better AP Style writer by doing some up front homework.
Here is your AP Stylebook Study Guide:
- Legislative Titles (how to reference politicians properly)
- Abbreviations and Acronyms (when you to use and not use)
- Time (AM, PM, AD, BC, and so on)
- Punctuation (a whole chapter, pay particular attention to comma)
- Organizations (look up ones you write about regularly)
- Race and Gender (which words to use in these touchy subjects)
- Titles (formal, royalty, judges, job titles, and more)
Then, when you come across someone who wants AP Style, tell them that you can do that. If you can write well and are willing to look up a few things, you aren’t lying.
I have recently decided to get into freelance writing. I currently am a student going to the University of Phoenix and am very familiar with APA writing. I saw on your forums about AP style of writing. Is this the same type of writing or is it different?
Thanks for your help!
Also, any advice for getting started in freelance writing would be appreciated.
Actually APA writing is a formatting, citation and style guide for preparing research papers, typically of the type that would be published in scientific journals.
AP Style is a writing style for writing news stories, particularly newspaper or news magazine type stories.
Both styles are frequently used in the academic world depending upon one’s purpose. APA style is a complete guide to formatting and writing a research paper including where the title goes, where footnotes go, and so on. As it is mostly used for scientific writing, there is much more focus on citing sources and presenting data. AP Style is more about proper use of phrasing and terminology as well as punctuation. While a newspaper reporter needs to have reliable sources, they typically do not present them within the framework of the article (with the exception of quotes).
I hope that helps.
Check for advice here: Becoming a Freelance Writer, Getting Started in Freelance Writing.