O.K., so you’re a writer. You’re a writer that requires writing official AP Style, but your AP Stylebook is out of date, or missing the word or phrase you are looking up. How can you find AP Style rules without using an AP Style guide?
Here is a quick tip to lookup AP Style rules free for any writer.
Free AP Stylebook Rules
Sometimes, just googling an AP style rule will give you the answers you seek. I occasionally write, and add to AP Style writing posts when I come across particularly tricky, or idiosyncratic AP style rules.
- AP Style rules for abbreviations
- AP Style on-site or on site
- AP Style affect vs effect
- AP Style – Writing About Taxes
You can also just click here for a list of my AP Style rules articles for free.
The other way to find free AP Style help is by googling news sources.
Keep in mind, all mainstream newspapers use AP Style, and they all have AP Stylebooks available for their writers.
So, let’s say you want to write about the Treasury’s latest economic impact payment, and want to know if you should capitalize ‘economic impact payment,’ you can search that phrase on Google. Then, click News then look at the results for the name of a newspaper that you know and respect. Be sure that the article in question is written by a real writer that writes for the publication, and not just a “community writer,” like they have a plethora of at Forbes, or Fortune, or whatever.
Now, click the article, and search for your phrase. However they wrote it, is most likely the AP Style rule for that phrase or terminology. If you want to be extra sure, check more than one newspaper article and see that they are doing it the same way.
Here is the Detroit Free Press article showing that Economic Impact Payment should be capitalized, as a proper noun.
AP Style By Twitter
Any serious writer, especially those who frequently write about current events, would do well to follow the AP Stylebook account on Twitter. This is especially useful for brand-new terms or phrases that haven’t made it into any version of the Associated Press Stylebook and will be tough to find examples for an online AP Style lookup. @APStylebook is quick to tweet out the official AP Stylebook rules for up-to-date terms.
Of course, nothing beats having an AP Stylebook for reference. If you find yourself frequently using online queries to find AP Style rules, it might just be worth coughing up the dough to buy your own copy. There is an online AP Stylebook to keep you 100% up to date, and to ensure that you have a copy with you wherever you write.
Find any errors or typos? Please let me know. This is one of my “crank it out real quick while you’re supposed to be writing something else” posts, so it didn’t get my proofreading before I hit publish.