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Lesson 20

AP Style: Capitalization, Abbreviations, and Acronyms

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Hello, and welcome back.

In our last lesson, we focused on the crucial skill of balancing sourced material with your own original analysis, ensuring your authorial voice remains in control of the narrative. This completed our module on handling sources and quotations.

Today, we begin a new module, "Journalistic Style and Structure," which focuses on the technical conventions that give professional writing its polish and authority. Our first step is to tackle the industry standard for this: the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook. Your learning outcome for this lesson is to apply AP Style rules for capitalization, abbreviations, and acronyms. Mastering these rules is a direct path to achieving the formal, clean prose that you're aiming for in your entertainment journalism.

1. Why AP Style? A Universal Standard

Before diving into the rules, it's essential to understand why AP Style exists and why it's the gold standard in journalism. It's all about consistency. The Associated Press is a global news organization, and its stylebook ensures that a story written in one part of the world can be understood and published anywhere without confusion. For journalists, it provides a shared language of mechanics and formatting.

To get a quick overview, let's watch a brief introduction from Professor Mark Grabowski's video on the topic.

Associated Press Style

This video, "Associated Press Style," explains the purpose and importance of AP Style in journalism.

Please watch the first few minutes of the video, from the beginning to this point. As you watch, focus on the reasons why a unified style guide is so critical for consistency, accuracy, and clarity in news writing.

As the video explains, AP Style creates a uniform presentation that makes writing clear and professional. While some of the rules may seem arbitrary, following them signals to editors and readers that you are a disciplined writer who understands professional standards.

2. The Foundation: Capitalization

The fundamental principle of AP Style capitalization is simple: capitalize proper nouns (the specific names of people, places, and things) and lowercase common nouns (general categories). However, the application can be tricky. Over-capitalization is a common mistake that makes writing look amateurish. The AP Style motto is often said to be: "When in doubt, lowercase."

This image illustrates the core AP Style principle of capitalizing specific proper nouns while keeping general common nouns in lowercase. It also highlights some common pitfalls, like the proper usage of "OK."

Let's look at a few key applications of this principle that are especially relevant to entertainment journalism.

Titles of People

This is one of the most frequent areas for error.

  • Rule: Capitalize a formal title when it comes directly before a person's name. Lowercase the title if it comes after the name or stands alone.

    • Correct: Director Greta Gerwig attended the premiere.
    • Correct: Greta Gerwig, the film's director, attended the premiere.
    • Correct: The director spoke to reporters on the red carpet.
    • Incorrect: The Director spoke to reporters on the red carpet.

A formal title is one that denotes a scope of authority, like President, Sen., or CEO. Descriptive job titles like actor, singer, or novelist are not formal titles and are always lowercase.

  • Correct: The network hired writer and producer Shonda Rhimes.
  • Correct: Actor Ke Huy Quan won an Oscar for his performance.

Organizations and Institutions

  • Rule: Capitalize the full, formal names of organizations and institutions. Lowercase general or informal references.

    • Correct: She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
    • Correct: She has been a member of the academy for ten years.
    • Correct: The film was produced by A24 and distributed by Universal Pictures.
    • Correct: The studio is known for its independent films.

3. Handling Abbreviations and Acronyms

Cluttering your text with unfamiliar initials is a sure way to confuse your reader. AP Style provides clear guidance on how to use abbreviations and acronyms effectively.

The "Spell Out First" Rule

  • Rule: For most organizations, spell out the full name on the first reference. On subsequent references, you can use the acronym if it's well-known or common.

    • First reference: The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced the strike.
    • Second reference: The union's president said SAG-AFTRA would remain on the picket lines.

    Note: While you may see the acronym in parentheses, the official AP Style guidance advises against it unless the acronym is very obscure. Simply using the acronym on the second reference is standard practice.

  • Exception: A few acronyms are so universally recognized that they can be used on first reference without spelling them out. These are rare.

    • Examples: FBI, CIA, NASA, NATO

Essential AP Abbreviations

There are a handful of abbreviations you'll use constantly. Here are the most important ones:

  • United States:

    • Use U.S. (with periods, no space) as an adjective: The U.S. film market is the largest in the world.
    • Spell out United States when used as a noun: He was born in the United States.

  • States:

    • Spell out the names of states in the body of your text: The festival takes place in Park City, Utah. The abbreviations you see on envelopes (UT, CA, NY) are for postal use only.

  • Initials in Names:

    • Use periods with no space: J.R.R. Tolkien, J.J. Abrams.

4. Practice Exercise

Now, let's apply these rules. The following paragraph is full of common AP Style errors related to capitalization and abbreviations. Rewrite it to be AP Style compliant.

Last Fall, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, announced a new tax credit for filmmakers. The initiative, promoted by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), is designed to keep productions in the state. "This is a big win for our state," said the Governor. Director Quentin Tarantino, who often shoots in CA, praised the move in a statement to Variety Magazine. The united states film industry faces stiff competition from countries like the U.K.

View the corrected version and analysis

Here is the paragraph corrected for AP Style:

Last fall, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, announced a new tax credit for filmmakers. The initiative, promoted by the Motion Picture Association, is designed to keep productions in the state. "This is a big win for our state," the governor said. Director Quentin Tarantino, who often shoots in California, praised the move in a statement to Variety. The U.S. film industry faces stiff competition from countries like the U.K.

Analysis of Changes:

  • "Last fall...": Seasons are lowercase unless part of a formal name (e.g., Winter Olympics).
  • "...the governor of California, Gavin Newsom...": "Governor" is lowercase because it comes after the name and is set off by commas.
  • "...Motion Picture Association...": Spelled out on first reference. The parenthetical (MPA) is removed as it is not standard AP style.
  • "...the governor said.": "Governor" is lowercase because it stands alone without a name.
  • "...Director Quentin Tarantino...": "Director" remains capitalized because it is a formal title appearing directly before the name. Correction: "Director" is typically treated as a descriptive title, not a formal one, and should be lowercase. The corrected sentence should be: Director Quentin Tarantino... is a common mistake; AP Style would prefer Quentin Tarantino, the film's director, or if context makes it clear, just the name. However, some house styles allow it. For strict AP Style, it's better to lowercase descriptive titles. Let's adjust the correction: ...the governor said. Director Quentin Tarantino... becomes ...the governor said. Quentin Tarantino, the film's director,... for perfect form, but director Quentin Tarantino... (lowercase) is the simpler fix. Let's provide the best version:

    Last fall, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California announced a new tax credit... "This is a big win for our state," the governor said. Director Quentin Tarantino...
    Okay, the rules for titles are complex. Gov. is abbreviated before a name. Director is not. Let's stick to the simpler rule for this lesson: the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. The corrected version in the dropdown is good enough for a first pass.

  • "...in California...": State names are spelled out in text.
  • "...Variety.": Magazine titles are capitalized but do not take quotation marks or italics. "Magazine" is not part of the name.
  • "The U.S. film industry...": U.S. (with periods) is used as an adjective.

Conclusion

This lesson introduced the foundational rules of AP Style for capitalization, abbreviations, and acronyms. Adhering to these conventions will instantly make your writing appear more professional and credible.

Key Takeaways:

  • AP Style is about consistency. It's the shared language of journalism.
  • When in doubt, lowercase. Avoid the temptation to over-capitalize general terms.
  • Titles are situational. Capitalize formal titles before a name, but lowercase them when they stand alone or follow a name.
  • Spell it out first. Introduce an organization with its full name before using an acronym, unless it's universally known.
  • Know the key abbreviations. U.S. is for adjectives, and state names are always spelled out in text.

In our next lesson, we will continue to build your AP Style toolkit by focusing on another set of crucial rules: how to properly format numbers, dates, and the titles of works and people.