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Associated Press Style Guide: Home

December 2024

Harding Project Intent

The Harding Project is a CSA initiative focused on revitalizing professional military discourse. Its goals include modernizing Army journals, building sustainable editorial models, and enhancing institutional archives to support professional growth. The Harding Project uses AP style to align all of the professional journals with a cohesive style guide.

 

PURPOSE
The content of professional military journals and other mass media is typically the result of many different writers and editors working together. AP style provides consistent guidelines for such publications in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation and language usage. Some guiding principles behind AP style are:

Consistency
Clarity
Accuracy
Brevity

 

AP style also aims to avoid stereotypes and unintentionally offensive language.

 

 

 

Quick Reference for AP Style

  • Abbreviate months with six or more letters if they are used with a specific date. Spell out those with five or fewer letters. Example: Aug. 13, June 6, May 31
  • Spell out the month when it is used without a specific date. Example: In September the football team or The class begins in February 2015
  • For days of the month, use only numerals. Do not use nd, rd, or th. Example: Aug. 2, Sept. 3, April 4
  • Do not abbreviate days of the week. You usually do not need both a day of the week and a date. Example: Wednesday, Monday or The next game is Oct. 13
  • Use numerals, a space, lowercase letters, and periods for a.m. and p.m. Do not use extra zeros on times. Example: 7 p.m., 10 a.m., 1:45 p.m.
  • Use noon and midnight rather than 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. Example: The club will meet at noon.
ARMY
GRADE RANK ABBREVIATION
O-10 general Gen.
O-9 lieutenant general Lt. Gen.
O-8 major general Maj. Gen.
O-7 brigadier general Brig. Gen.
O-6 colonel Col.
O-5 lieutenant colonel Lt. Col.
O-4 major Maj.
O-3 captain Capt.
O-2 first lieutenant 1st Lt.
O-1 second lieutenant 2nd Lt.

 

 

 

  • For all people (adults and students), use full names on first reference. On second reference, use only the last name. Example: Jane Smith, a high school junior
  • If two people with the same last name are quoted in a story, use first and last names. Example: Jane Smith explained. Jenny Smith also believes.
  • Formal titles are only capitalized when they appear immediately before a name. Just make sure it's formal title and not merely a job description (teacher, coach, counselor, etc.) AP wavers on whether "principal" should be capitalized before a name. You can decide. Example: Jenny Smith, auto club president, Under Mayor Bob Jackson, the town seemed to thrive, but basketball coach Joe Jones told another story. Donald Trump is president.
  • Sophomore, junior, senior and freshman are lowercase unless at the start of a sentence. Example: For sophomore Sarah Smith, it was...
  • Titles of departments and names of classes are not capitalized unless they are also a language or nationality. Example: math, science, English, Spanish
  • In most usage, spell out numbers under 10. Exceptions beyond dates and times shown below:
  1. Address: 6 Maple St.
  2. Ages, even for inanimate objects: Beth, a 15-year old; the 2-year-old building
  3. Dollars and cents: $5; 5 cents
  4. Measurements (such as dimensions and speed): 6 feet tall, 9-by-12 rug; 7 miles per hour
  5. Temperatures: 8 degrees
  6. Millions, billions: 3 million people
  7. Percentages: 4 percent (and spell out "percent")
  • Spell out any number that appears at the beginning of a sentence. The one exception to this rule is a year. Example: 1981 was the last time the high school won a state title.
  • Do not spell out monetary amounts or use extra zeros. $6 or $2.30, but NOT $6.00 or six dollars.
  • Apostrophes usually show possession, so usually you shouldn't use them to make acronyms and numbers plural. An exception is with individual letters such as in grading. Example: 1970s; ABCs; she received six 4s; she received six A's
  • Not all cities need a state name with them, but those that do should NOT get a postal code but rather AP abbreviations. Example: Seattle; Bellevue, Wash; Portland, Ore. (NOT WA or OR)
  • Place quotation marks around almost all composition titles, but not reference, newspaper or magazine names. Example: "American Idol"; "Born This Way"; Time magazine
  • Capitalize the first letter of a full-sentence quote. Example: Jones said, "All of us were excited."
  • When a full-sentence quotation is introduced or followed by attribution, place a comma between them, unless the quote is a question. Example: "All of us were excited," Jones said. "Were we all excited?" Jones asked.
  • When using a sentence fragment as a quotation, do not set it off with a comma unless the sentence requires one for proper grammar. Do not capitalize the first letter of a sentence fragment quote. Example: Jones told the crowd to "get pumped up" about the pep rally.

 

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