AP style – titles and states

1. AP style – titles and states Composition titles, job titles, state names

2. Composition titles • Books, magazines, movies, computer games, album and song titles, radio and TV program titles, lectures, speeches, works of art. • No italics – ever.

3. General guidelines • Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters. • Capitalize an article – a, an or the – or a word of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word in a title.

4. More … • Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material. • Do not use quotation marks around such software titles as WordPerfect and Windows.

5. Translate • Translate a foreign title into English unless a work is generally known by its foreign name. For more on this one make sure to consult your stylebook.

6. Examples • “The Star-Spangled Banner.” • “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” • “Of Mice and Men” • “CBS Evening News” • “The Office” • Encyclopedia Britannica • Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second Edition

7. Titles • In general, capitalize formal titles when they are used directly before a person’s name. • Informal titles used before a person’s name are lowercase. • If the title is used after the person’s name, it is lowercase.

8. For example • Central Michigan University Director of Public Relations Steve Smith. • Central Michigan University spokesman Steve Smith. • Steve Smith, director of public relations for Central Michigan University.

9. Also • Lowercase and spell out titles when they are not used with an individual’s name.- The president issued a statement.- The pope gave his blessing.

10. Abbreviated titles • Some titles are abbreviated when used before a name. • Dr., Gov., Lt. Gov., Rep., Sen. • Also, some military titles are abbreviated when used before a name. See military titles in the book:- Gen. David Patraeus- Army Sgt. Maj. John Jones.

11. State names • All state names are spelled out completely when they stand alone. • Eight state names are never abbreviated: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas, Utah. • Abbreviate a state when used in conjunction with a city, town, village or military base in most references.

12. Abbreviating • When abbreviating, we don’t use the postal abbreviations, but the three-four letter varieties:- Billings, Mont. Carson, Penn.Mobile, Ala. Eugene, Ore. • Politicians and party affiliation: D-Ala., R-Mont. See the party affiliation entry in the stylebook for more.

13. Some cities stand alone • Many of the larger cities in the United States and around the world don’t require any state or country to be mentioned afterward. • See the dateline section of the book. • New York, Atlanta, Miami, Denver, Salt Lake City, London, Moscow, Montreal, Cairo, Stockholm

14. Cities in Michigan • In general, when writing about cities in the state of Michigan, no need to put Mich. after the word. • An exception: If the context would confuse the reader. • For example: Paris, Mich.Wyoming, Mich.St. Louis, Mich.

15. State of constructions • Lowercase the word state in all state of constructions. • EX. He is a resident of the state of Michigan.

16. Questions?