AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law

432 Pages·2005·2.32 MB·English

by  Goldstein

Stylebook
2005
The Associated Press retains all right, title and interest in and to the AP
material that follows, including copyright. This material may not be re-
sold, sublicensed or distributed without written permission. The AP Style-
book cannot be made available in any printed form to any other person,
third party or affi liate, or used for CD-ROM publishing, fax on demand,
audiotext, e-mail, or any other electronic delivery service or for any other
purpose than the posting of the AP Stylebook on your internal computer
system, without AP’s prior written approval.
Editor
Norm Goldstein

Stylebook
and Briefing on Media Law
Editor
Norm Goldstein
[email protected]
000011--001100__FFRROONNTT..iinndddd ii 33//55//0055 88::4477::0033 AAMM
Published by
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
450 W. 33rd St.
New York, NY 10001
© 2005 by The Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means
without the prior written permission of the publisher, excepting brief
quotes used in connection with reviews written specifically for inclusion in
a magazine or newspaper.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 91-070484
ISBN: 0-917360-24-9
Design and content management by Satchmo Publishing Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
Printed by Banta Book Group
Cover design by Christine Tash
First Edition, August 1977
40th Edition, 2005
000011--001100__FFRROONNTT..iinndddd iiii 33//55//0055 88::4477::0044 AAMM
CONTENTS
FOREWORD iv
BIBLIOGRAPHY vi
STYLEBOOK
An A to Z listing of guides to capitalization, abbreviation,
spelling, numerals and usage 3
Internet Search Tips 128
SPORTS GUIDELINES AND STYLE 278
BUSINESS GUIDELINES AND STYLE 301
A GUIDE TO PUNCTUATION 322
BRIEFING ON MEDIA LAW
Introduction 336
What Is Libel? 337
Procedures for Handling Kills and Correctives 358
Access to Places and Information 365
The Right of Privacy 369
Copyright Guidelines 373
PHOTO CAPTIONS 375
GRAPHICS 384
FILING THE WIRE
Coding Requirements 387
Keyword Slugline 390
FILING PRACTICES 392
EDITING MARKS 410
ABOUT THE AP 411
U.S. Bureaus 415
AP PUBLICATIONS 417
Order Forms 420
000011--001100__FFRROONNTT..iinndddd iiiiii 33//55//0055 88::4477::0044 AAMM
FOREWORD
The first Associated Press Stylebook came out in 1953. It was a booklet
of 60 pages, “distilled from a thousand suggestions and ideas, a stack of
newspapers and a big dictionary.”
The slim, stapled booklet was called the “most definitive and inclusive
work ever undertaken by a group of newspapers.” Yet it proved to be just
the start of a work that is constantly in progress.
In 1977, the AP published a major revision of the original Stylebook,
the forerunner of today’s editions. Far more than just a collection of rules,
the book became part dictionary, part encyclopedia, part textbook — an
eclectic source of information for writers and editors of any publication.
Today, the 21st-century Associated Press has become the essential
global news network. And the AP Stylebook has become the essential tool
for anyone who cares about good writing.
The Stylebook is now available in a variety of electronic formats. It con-
tinues to add entries that reflect the language of our fast-changing world.
Truly, it is a tool now for wired editors as well as wire editors.
But just as the AP remains dedicated to its fundamental journalistic
principles, the AP Stylebook remains committed to its original concept: to
provide a uniform presentation of the printed word, to make a story writ-
ten anywhere understandable everywhere.
And it is still distilled from a thousand suggestions and ideas, and sev-
eral big desk and online dictionaries.
Our thanks and appreciation go to those who have helped enrich this
book by their questions and suggestions on style. Many entries reflect
contributions by the AP staff, the AP’s members and subscribers, journal-
ism teachers and students, and specialists in a host of fields. There have
also been countless contributions from everyday readers of the news, who
share with us a distinct pride in the clarity and precision of language.
TOM CURLEY
President and
Chief Executive Officer
000011--001100__FFRROONNTT..iinndddd iivv 33//55//0055 88::4477::0055 AAMM
WHAT’S NEW
In this edition of the AP Stylebook
-------------------------
New entries: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives;
child care; Customs; Doctors Without Borders; e.g.; Fatah; FedEx; G-8;
Game Boy; Government Accountability Offi ce; i.e.; JetBlue Airways;
Lycra; Midwest region; physician assistant; Sept. 11; Southwest Airlines;
sync; taps; tilde; touch-screen; underscore; video game; voice mail.
Changes and updates: AIDS; backyard; best-seller; call letters; citizens
band; the Commonwealth; Congo; earthquakes; European Union; fund-
raising; Hodgkin’s disease; Kmart; metric system; Middle East; National
Guard; PepsiCo; policymaker; Sears; sewage; union names; United Na-
tions; U.S.
000011--001100__FFRROONNTT..iinndddd vv 33//55//0055 88::4477::0055 AAMM
Y
H
P
A
R
G
O
I
L
B
I
B
BIBLIOGRAPHY
000011--001100__FFRROONNTT..iinndddd vvii 33//55//0055 88::4477::0055 AAMM
BIBLIOGRAPHY — vii
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Following are reference books used in the preparation of The Associ-
ated Press Stylebook. They are the accepted reference sources for material
not covered by the Stylebook.
First reference for spelling, style, usage and foreign geographic
names:
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Wiley, Hobo-
ken, N.J.
Second reference for spelling, style and usage:
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Spring-
field, Mass.
Second reference for foreign geographic names:
National Geographic Atlas of the World, National Geographic Society,
Washington, D.C.
www.nationalgeographic.com/index.html
For aircraft names:
Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft; Jane’s Yearbooks, London, and Franklin
Watts Inc., New York.
For military ships:
Jane’s Fighting Ships; Jane’s Yearbooks, London, and Franklin Watts
Inc., New York.
For nonmilitary ships:
Lloyd’s Register of Shipping; Lloyd’s Register of Shipping Trust Corp.
Ltd., London.
For railroads:
Official Railway Guide — Freight Service, and Official Railway Guide
— Passenger Service, Travel Edition; Official Railway Guide, New York.
For federal government questions:
Official Congressional Directory; U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C.
For foreign government questions:
Political Handbook of the World; CSA Publications, State University of
New York-Binghamton.
For the formal name of a business:
Standard & Poor’s Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives;
Standard & Poor’s Corp., New York.
000011--001100__FFRROONNTT..iinndddd vviiii 33//55//0055 88::4477::0055 AAMM
viii — BIBLIOGRAPHY
For religion questions:
Handbook of Denominations in the United States; Abingdon Press,
Nashville, Tenn., and New York.
World Christian Encylopedia; Second Edition; Oxford University Press,
New York, N.Y.
Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches; Abingdon Press, Nash-
ville, Tenn., and New York, for the National Council of Churches of Christ
in the U.S.A., New York.
Other references consulted in the preparation of the AP Stylebook:
Bernstein, Theodore M. The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English
Usage. Atheneum, 1965.
Bernstein, Theodore M. More Language That Needs Watching. Channel
Press, 1962.
Bernstein, Theodore M. Watch Your Language. Atheneum, 1958.
Cappon, Rene J. The Word. The Associated Press, 1982; second edi-
tion, 1991.
Follett, Wilson (edited and completed by Jacques Barzun). Modern
American Usage. Hill & Wang, 1966.
Fowler, H.W. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Oxford University
Press, 1965.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition. University of Chicago
Press, 2003.
Morris, William and Morris, Mary. Harper Dictionary of Contemporary
Usage. Harper & Row, 1975; second edition, 1985.
Newton, Harry, Newton’s Telecom Dictionary, 15th Edition. Miller Free-
man, Inc., 1999.
Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Problem Words & Expressions. McGraw-Hill
Book Co., 1975.
Skillin, Marjorie E. and Gay, Robert M. Words into Type. Prentice-Hall
Inc., 1974.
Strunk, William Jr. and White, E.B. The Elements of Style, second edi-
tion. The Macmillan Co., 1972.
Also consulted were the stylebooks of the Boston Globe, Indianapolis
News, Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel, Newsday, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wilm-
ington (Del.) News-Journal, and the U.S. Government Printing Office.
000011--001100__FFRROONNTT..iinndddd vviiiiii 33//55//0055 88::4477::0066 AAMM