Common AP Problems That Need to be Mastered

These items are headings listed in your AP stylebook. Familiarize yourself with each of them and the bold-face links to related terms.


AP – A-C:

abbreviations and acronyms
academic degrees
academic departments
academic titles
accused
addresses
adopt
ages
allege
another
a.m., p.m.
animals
another
anti
apostrophe
arrest
boy
burglary, larceny, robbery, theft
capitalization
co-
collective nouns
collide
colon
comma
compose, comprise, constitute
composition titles
courtesy titles


AP – D-H:

damage, damages
dimensions
datelines
directions and regions
distances
dollars
essential, non-essential clauses and phrases
exclamation marks
fewer, less
fractions
full-
full-time, full time
geographic names
girl
his, her
homicide, murder, manslaughter
hyphen


AP – I-M:

include
injuries
innocent
job descriptions
lady
legislative titles
media
military titles
millions, billions
Miss
Months
Mr., Mrs., Ms.

AP – N-S:

nationalities and races
numerals
party affiliations
percent
percentages
periods
plurals
possessives
pupil, student
quotations in news
quotation marks
race
re-
religious references
religious titles
second reference
semicolons
state names
subjunctive mood


AP – T-Z:

temperatures
that (conjunction)
that, which, who, whom
time element
time of day
times
titles
trusty, trustee
weapons
weather terms
weights
well
women
years
youth
ZIP code

Other Important Sections:

Sports Guidelines
Business Guidelines
Guide to Punctuation
Briefing on Media Law
Proofreader Marks

Critical Thinking Checklist

1. Reading, not editing, is the first step 

• Give the story a quick reading for content - without making any editing changes.

2. Organization. 

• Is the lead labored or long? 
• Is there a nut paragraph, no lower than the third or fourth graf, that tells succinctly why the story is in the paper?
• Does the story contain the essential five W's and H?
• Is the news presented in the order of importance? 
• Does the story have a good ending that will make the reader remember it? 
• Did the lead's writer mine the story for information that will grab the reader's attention? 

3. Clarity.

• Is the story clear? 
• Is it complete? 
• Are there unanswered questions? 
• Are there unexplained contradictions?

4. Fairness. 

• Is the story balanced? 
• Are sources reliable and identified? 
• Does the story give both sides? 
• Does it provide an opportunity to reply to charges? 
• Does it libel anyone? Is it in good taste?

5. Length. 

• Is the story too long, too short, just right? 
• Is there more information than is useful or interesting to the reader? 
• Can it be made shorter without sacrificing anything truly important?

6. If there are problems in any of the areas listed above, go back to the writer with questions and suggestions. Ask the writer to fix the story. This is part of the feedback that makes a good story better and makes the writer and the editor a team.

7. After the first reading, review the story again. Have you done everything that is needed or are you trying to avoid dealing with difficult questions? Leave no question unanswered. Have you listened to your instincts, your experience? If you have a hunch, have you followed it? Remember that gut feelings are an important part of editing.

8. Check one more time to make sure the reader can understand the story.

Also...

• Have you checked grammar, punctuation and spelling?
• Are verbs generally active and lively, rather than passive and dull? Do subjects and verbs agree? Is verb tense consistent?
• Is the time element clear? Does the reader know when things happened? Remember that chronology is a good organizing device.
• Are historical facts and dates correct?
• Does usage conform to style?
• Have you changed awkward phrases, shortened marathon sentences, chopped up long paragraphs, eliminated repetitiveness and redundancy, killed cliches?
• Have you checked the weird name in the city directory, telephone book or library?
• Has the writer removed "stutter quotes," a direct quotation followed by a paraphrase of the same thing, or vice versa?
• Does the story avoid jargon? Have you removed foreign words or phrases, unexplained acronyms and unexplained technical terms?
• Are numbers correct? Double-check any math, including percentages, to make sure it is right.
• Does the story avoid the use of words in place of "said?"
• Does the story avoid hyperbole? Has the writer refused the temptation to set records for the biggest, best, tallest, shortest? Remember there's always a faster gun.
• Have you corrected grammar in a quote unless there is a special reason for the ungrammatical usage?
• Is there enough background for the reader who missed the last story?

Warren Watson, API (Originally developed by Watson, Lou Ureneck and Jon Kellogg for the Portland Press Herald/ Maine Sunday Telegram)