10 Important Rules and Conventions of Associated Press (AP) Style

Associated Press (AP) is a New York news agency founded in 1846. Today, it is one of the largest news organizations in the world, with journalists in almost 100 countries. This global news organization has established one of the foremost English styles widely adopted by digital and print publications. 

(5 Changes That Matter From The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition.)

Many websites and magazines open to freelance contributors ask for articles submitted to adhere to AP style for the sake of consistency, accuracy and clarity. AP style is one of the most important style guides for freelance writers to be familiar with because of its universality.

What is the “Associated Press Stylebook”?

“The Associated Press Stylebook” is an AP style handbook, first published in 1953, that gets regularly updated with new editions on a biennial basis. This reference handbook is a comprehensive guide to the Associated Press style. That book is organized like an A-Z of AP style rules and conventions for spelling, punctuation, word usage, abbreviations, numerals, capitalization, dates and much more. It includes thousands of style entries readers can look up when needed.

Although the Associated Press originally established its stylebook guide primarily for news reporting, AP style usage scope goes far beyond that today. It is more like an industry-standard style guide for magazines and newspapers. “Associated Press Stylebook” usage is especially prevalent for copywriting, especially public relations and marketing material.

The printed “Associated Press Stylebook” version is currently retailing at $34.95. There’s also a digital (online) AP style guide version you can subscribe to, which gets updated throughout the year. This Associated Press page provides updated pricing details for all AP-style packages.

Purchasing (or subscribing to) the latest “Associated Press Stylebook 2024-2026” and reading through many of its entries is the best way to familiarize yourself with AP style. However, we can review some of the more important AP style rules and conventions here. These are some of the most notable AP style practices to be aware of for your articles.

Numbers

The general AP style numerical rule is to spell out numbers of nine or lower and use digits for those higher than 10. That’s simple enough, but this rule has numerous exceptions. The “Associated Press Stylebook” states you should always use numerical digits irrespective of value for the following:

• Ages
• Speeds
• Temperatures
• Times and dates
• Financial values
• Percentage values
• Sizes

Capitalization of Titles and Subheadings

AP style for the capitalization of titles and subheadings is primarily title case. The AP stylebook’s general rule is to capitalize all principal words of four or more letters in titles. This includes prepositions of four or more words, such as with and from. However, prepositions, coordinate conjunctions and indefinite articles (the, an and a) of three or fewer letters in titles and subheadings should not be capitalized.

Title Case Converter is a handy online tool for converting titles to AP style or other alternatives. To utilize that tool, open this Title Case Converter page and input a title or subheading in the text box. Select the AP radio button and click Convert to see how your entered title is capitalized for the Associated Press style.

Quotation Marks for Composition Titles

Composition titles are names of books, movies, songs (or albums), TV programs, radio shows, famous speeches, video games, artworks and poems. “The Associated Press Stylebook” says double quotation marks should be added around all such composition titles. Here are a few examples of composition titles that adhere to the AP style:

• “Inside the Third Reich”
• “CBS Evening News”
• “Gone With the Wind”
• “Time After Time”
• “Mona Lisa”
• “The Marriage of Figaro”

Dates

We often need to include dates in articles. AP style favors the U.S. date format of MM/DD/YYYY, which isn’t surprising for what is an American style guide. Longer month names such as August, September, October, November, December, January and February should also be abbreviated to Aug., Sep., Oct., Nov., Dec., Jan. and Feb. in dates. These are some examples of full dates that stick to AP style:

• Dec. 12, 2024
• May 7, 1945
• April 18, 2025
• July 20, 1969
• Nov. 11, 1918

Also, note that AP style dates (and those more generally) should not include ordinal numbers like 11th, 23rd, 31st and 22nd. Dates must always use figures with suffixes omitted. However, the AP style does use ordinal numbers for street addresses.

Exclude Serial Commas

“The Associated Press Stylebook” rule for simple lists is that serial commas should not be included before the coordinate conjunction (and) at the end of them. For example, excluding a serial comma for the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet list of colors in a rainbow is correct for AP style. This is a slightly contentious rule for an American style guide because U.S. English generally favors including serial commas at the ends of lists, as advocated by “The Chicago Manual of Style” and APA guides. Most Americans who stick to U.S. English would probably prefer to include the serial comma in lists within sentences.

Times

AP style generally advocates using a.m. or p.m. (with periods included) for time listings rather than o’clock. Times must always use figures and should have colons that separate hours from minutes. For example, times written like 3:30 p.m. or 11 a.m. adhere to AP style.

Internet and Web

Authors, especially tech writers, often need to mention the internet and the web in their articles. Associated Press changed policy when it decided to lowercase the internet and web entries in its stylebook in 2016. An AP editor explained this policy change as follows, “The changes reflect a growing trend toward lowercasing both words, which have become generic terms.”

Thus, the nouns web and internet should not be capitalized in accordance with AP style. This shift in policy highlights Associated Press now recognizes web and internet to be common nouns rather than proper ones. Note that this rule applies to all instances of web, such as web browsers and web pages.

Singular Possessive Nouns Ending in S

“The Associated Press Stylebook” advocates only adding an apostrophe to possessive nouns ending with s. Those who stick to the AP style never use a double s for such possessive nouns. For example, “James’ book was 300 pages long” is correct for AP style. However, alternative guides like “The Chicago Manual of Style” advocate adding an apostrophe and s to possessive nouns that end with s.

No Accents in Foreign Words

“The Associated Press Stylebook” states that foreign words such as cafe, cliche, a la carte and deja vu should not include accent marks. This is probably a welcome rule, as letters with accent marks are special characters for which the required keys to enter them are not especially obvious. However, AP style does make an exception for quoting languages that use accent marks.

The Percentage Sign

It used to be the case that the Associated Press favored using the percent word with numbers rather than including the % sign. However, this has changed with a more recent 2019 stylebook update. The percent entry within the “Associated Press Stylebook” now says we should pair the percentage sign with numbers, such as 50%, 25%, 8.5%, etc.

However, the AP style guide still advocates using words for percentages in more casual circumstances. This approach is preferred when referring to percentage values more figuratively than statistically. For example, you could write, “He estimated he had a 100 percent chance of winning the bet.”

The AP style rules and conventions above merely scratch the service of “The Associated Press Stylebook.” However, the AP book is still a more concise and focused style guide than “The Chicago Manual,” which is more than 1,000 pages long. This conciseness makes the AP style guide more suitable for short-form newspaper, magazine, and website articles. Your articles will likely have better consistency and clarity if you stick to AP style, which are two of the most essential guiding principles of “The Associated Press Stylebook.”

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Note:

Note that I have excluded serial commas from listed things (x, x and x) in the article so that it conforms with the AP style. I would not usually do that, but I feel it’s appropriate to do so in this case for an article about the Associated Press style.