January 2015
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EQ STYLEBOOK
Editorial Guidelines for Writers
© 2015 Wynnwood Media LLC
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INTRODUCTION
1. THE SERIAL OR OXFORD COMMA
2. COMPOUND ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS
3. COMPOUND SENTENCES VERSUS COMPOUND VERBS
4. ITALICS
5. NAMES OF COMPETITIONS AND PRIZES
6. NAMES OF HORSE BREEDS
7. NAMES OF MONTHS / DATES / DAYS
8. HYPHENATION / PREFIXES / SUFFIXES
9. HUNTER JUMPER
10. NAMES OF PEOPLE
11. WEB ADDRESSES / URLS
12. WEB (UPPERCASE) OR WEB (LOWERCASE)
13. ABBREVIATIONS
14. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE
15. AGES
16. CAPITALIZATION
17. COLLECTIVE NOUNS AND VERB USE
18. CURRENCIES
19. DICTIONARY
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20. DIFFERENT FROM
21. DIMENSIONS
22. DIRECTIONS
23. DECK AND TITLES
24. EACH OTHER / ONE ANOTHER
25. FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES
26. FRACTIONS
27. GENDERED TERMS
28. GRAMMAR
29. LONG DASH (EM DASH)
30. NAMES OF CITIES, STATES, AND COUNTRIES
31. NAMES OF SEASONS
32. NUMBER AGREEMENT
33. NUMBERS AND NUMERALS: GENERAL RULES
34. PHOTO CAPTIONS
35. PLURALS OF NAMES /LETTERS / NUMERALS
36. POSSESSIVES
37. QUOTATIONS
38. TIME OF DAY
39. WORD AS A WORD
40. WORDS / USAGE
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W
ith a few exceptions, Equestrian
Quarterly (EQ) follows the style
guidelines set by the Associated Press (AP). AP style is used
in newspapers, magazines, and other publications
across the U.S. as well as in several other countries.
While these guidelines are fully available in the
association’s published guide, The Associated Press
Stylebook, this stylesheet will answer some of the
more common questions authors and editors have
when writing and reviewing articles for publication. For spellings and usage of words not in this or
the AP stylebook, the dictionary of reference is Webster’s New World Dictionary, Fourth College Edition.
In the guidelines that follow, areas in which Equestrian Quarterly’s style differs from strict AP style, as
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well as more common questions, are treated first.
Following these points are some guidelines specific
to equine publications. Finally, more general guidelines are offered, arranged alphabetically by topic.
Finally, a word about using news releases or public relations documents as sources for stories in EQ.
Public relations writing style is not the same as
that used for commercial publication. Generally it
is a bit aggrandizing to the client and follows rules
different from AP Style. If a news release comes
from somewhere outside the U.S., it will also likely
follow different rules for spelling and punctuation
from what we use in American English. It is always
important to vet any news release for style before
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1. THE SERIAL OR OXFORD COMMA
Although modern American English is moving to include the
serial comma (the final comma in a series of words or phrases), AP
style rarely does this. EQ always uses a serial comma.
He bought bread, milk, eggs, and cheese. He left her because of her insipid tendency to hover around him
needlessly, her completely conceited nature, and most of all because of
her insane mother.
2. COMPOUND ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS
Compound modifiers are two or more words that modify a single
noun or verb and express a single concept. When a compound
modifier precedes a noun, use hyphens to connect all the words in
the compound except the adverbs very and adverbs ending in –ly;
readers expect these adverbs to modify the word that follows.
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Consider the different meanings conveyed in these pairs of sentences:
The president met with small-business owners.
The president met with small business owners. She bought a house with barn-red paint.
She bought a house with barn red-paint.
The book was written by a little-known author.
The book was written by a little known author.
Compound adjectives with hyphens are generally not hyphenated when they follow the verb to be (predicate adjectives). Again,
hyphenate if a construction without a hyphen might cause reader
confusion.
The high-quality print pictured three horses.
As noted in the section on hyphenation, hyphens are basically joiners. Use them to avoid confusion or to make a single idea out of
The print picturing three horses was high quality.
more than one word, e.g., a know-it-all attitude, a bluish-green dress, a
little-known remedy, a full-time job, a better-qualified applicant, free-range
chickens, two-storey houses. Use no hyphens in constructions such as
a very large house, an easily acquired skill.
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Similarly, compound adjectives that would be hyphenated before a
noun are usually open when they follow it:
When there is no conjunction in a compound sentence, use a semicolon.
She wore a bluish-green dress.
A compound verb does not take a comma or a semicolon. The
difference between these two kinds of sentences is easy to see in
simple sentences but not always in complex sentences.
The dress, a bluish green, was made of satin.
For more on using hyphens as joiners, see Hyphenation and Words/
Usage.
Compound verbs:
The horse ran and jumped.
3. COMPOUND SENTENCES VERSUS
COMPOUND VERBS
The horse ran across the field at breakneck speed and easily cleared all
12 of the course’s hurdles.
When to use a Comma
A compound sentence is made up of two or more complete clauses; Compound sentences:
each clause contains both a subject noun or pronoun and a verb.
The horse ran, and the spectators jumped.
A compound verb occurs in a sentence that has only one subject
but two verbs.
When the clauses of a compound sentence incorporates the conjunctions and, or, but, or nor, use a comma to separate its two
clauses.
The horse ran; the spectators jumped.
The horse ran across the field at breakneck speed, and the spectators
jumped out of their seats as it cleared the first hurdle.
The horse ran across the field at breakneck speed; the spectators jumped
out of their seats as it cleared the first hurdle.
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Articles in journals, magazines, newspapers, and the like, as well as
4. ITALICS
Equestrian Quarterly follows Chicago Style rules for italics. Use ital- the names of individual TV series episodes, are placed inside quotation marks:
ics in these situations:
When a letter is used as a letter or a word is used as a word, as
opposed to conveying meaning:
The speaker could not pronounce the w in flower.
She pronounced horse with a German accent.
I read “Are Tomatoes All That Good for You?” in the latest issue of Time
magazine.
For additional use of italics, see Foreign Words and Phrases.
5. NAMES OF COMPETITIONS AND PRIZES
Capitalize names of competitions and prizes only when used in a
competition’s full name:
For titles of newspapers, magazines, films, TV programs, works
of art, and musical compositions and for emphasis if the emphasis
might otherwise be lost:
The horse took the grand prix in the amateur division of the 2013 International Reining Competition.
I saw the article about tomatoes in The New York Times.
The horse won the 2014 Central Park Grand Prix. The horse won an amateur international grand prix in a 2013 reining competition.
He read about tomatoes in Time magazine.
Avatar is his favorite film.
Picasso’s Two Blue Nudes sold for an undisclosed amount.
The Buddha said we should think not only of ourselves but of all living
beings.
While AP style calls for initials to be used for competition names on
second reference, it does not suggest inserting those initials after the
first used of the contest’s full name. EQ style does insert these initials, as we think doing so makes such references easier to decode:
She was eager to attend the International Jumping Festival (IJF), where she
hoped to learn more about jumper competition. Unfortunately, the last IJF
event was canceled.
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6. NAMES OF HORSE BREEDS
Capitalize names of horse breeds: Thoroughbred, Arabian, Quarter
Horse, Standardbred, Appaloosa, Morgan. For breeds not listed,
capitalize only those names or parts of names derived from proper
nouns, e.g.,
Boston terrier, bull terrier, Brittany spaniel.
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When you refer to a month, day, and year, set off the year with
commas:
February 14, 2008, was a fabulous Valentine’s Day.
Never abbreviate a day’s name except in tables, in which case use
the day’s first three letters without a period.
7. NAMES OF MONTHS / DATES / DAYS
Always capitalize months. AP says to abbreviate a month’s name
in running copy when it is used with a specific date, if the month’s
name has more than five letters. EQ style is more gracious and always spells out a month’s complete name:
8. HYPHENATION / PREFIXES / SUFFIXES
The AP style guide devotes nearly a full page to using hyphens,
and only a few salient rules can be addressed here. Hyphens are
basically joiners. They are used to avoid ambiguity (e.g., small-business owners, vs. small business-owners) or to make a single idea out of
more than one word (e.g., barn-red paint). Use a hyphen to join the
The first grand prix was held November 12, 1918.
elements of two-thought compounds: socio-economic, well-being.
Use a hyphen to indicate dual heritage: Chinese-American woman.
Spell out the month when it stands alone or is used with a year but Exceptions: French Canadian, Latin American.
not a date:
When expressing a string of two or more hyphenated forms using
January 1933.
the same base adjective and modifying the same noun, the expression can be collapsed as follows:
Note there is no comma when you list only the month and the
year. Do not use numerals with slashes for dates, except for 9/11.
The wheat-free, sugar-free, egg-free recipe is a trade secret. The wheat-,
sugar-, and egg-free recipe is a trade secret.
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The general rule for prefixes is to not use a hyphen after the prefix
if the root word starts with a consonant. (Exception: anti-, which
is generally hyphenated.) Except for cooperate and coordinate, use
a hyphen if the prefix ends in a vowel and the word that follows
begins with the same vowel. Also use a hyphen is the word that
follows is capitalized (e.g., sub-Saharan Africa) or already has a prefix
(e.g., sub-subparagraph).
Suffixes are in general closed up. Always use a hyphen to avoid
doubled or tripled consonants: doglike, barnlike, daffodil-like, shell-like.
(This doubled-consonant rule is an EQ exception to AP Style, as we
consider it less confusing for readers.) If in doubt, consult Webster’s New World College Dictionary, the AP stylebook, or the Words/
Usage entry in this guide. If you don’t find your word there, use
two words for a verb form and hyphenate noun or adjective forms.
Exceptions: chipmaker, drugmaker, policymaker, coffee maker.
Some commonly hyphenated words: African-American, Asian-American, and similar compounds; anti-virus, anti-war. Some words that are
exceptions to the prefix rule include biannual, biennial; bimonthly,
biweekly are correct forms for these compounds.
In running text, the preferred form for a range of numbers is to
use the word to, e.g., You are invited to join us for cocktails, December
20 to 23, 6 to 9 p.m. However, in less formal writing, a hyphen is
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acceptable: You are invited to joins us for cocktails,
December 20-23, 6-9 p.m.
Compound adjectives with hyphens are generally not hyphenated
when they follow the verb to be (predicate adjectives).
The high-quality print pictured a pair of horses.
The print picturing three horses was high quality.
Again, check the dictionary to see whether a specific word is an
open, closed, or hyphenated compound. If the word is not listed, consider whether the word might be easily misread without a
hyphen, e.g., co-worker without the hyphen being misread as if it
were pronounced cow-orker.
For more on hyphenation, see Ages and Compound Adjectives and
Adverbs in this guide.
9. HUNTER JUMPER
The style guide developed by American Horse Publications (AHP)
prefers not to combine these two disciplines except in a direct
quote. AHP further states that, should these terms be used together, there should be no hyphen, dash, or slash between them. Because EQ style is less formal than that of some other equine pub-
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lications, we do use these terms together when describing a horse
or competitor skilled in both disciplines. When the terms are used
together as a compound noun, no hyphen is used; when appearing
as an adjective, connect the words with a hyphen:
12. WEB (UPPERCASE) OR WEB (LOWERCASE)
While AP Style calls for an initial capital letter on web or website,
EQ style uses these words in all lower case, with website always
appearing as one word.
The famed hunter jumper took prizes in all the events she entered.
13. ABBREVIATIONS
AP style does not use periods in abbreviations or acronyms of three
or more letters, and in common two-letter initialisms: AA, AP,
CD, DA, ER, GI, IM, IQ, IT, LA. But use periods in most two-letter
abbreviations (U.S., U.K., E.U.) and in abbreviations with lowercase letters: B.A., Ph.D., f.o.b. Abbreviations in headlines never
take periods: US, NY, EU. Never use uncommon abbreviations or
ones that are not easily understood; instead, write out the complete
name.
The gelding took every award in the hunter-jumper class.
10. NAMES OF PEOPLE
AP’s general style for names is to use the full name on first reference, surname for references that follow, disambiguating when, for
example, two people with the same surname are featured in the
same story. Newspaper writing has its own linguistic register, and
it is more staid and formal than this magazine’s style. EQ style is
less rigid and incorporates given names and surnames in a mixed
fashion, using them interchangeably. This practice creates a more
intimate experience for our readers.
11. WEB ADDRESSES / URLS
While AP Style calls for “http://” or other protocol at the start of
Web addresses, Equestrian Quarterly does not include a protocol or
the www, but simply states the website name: amazon.com, apstylebook.com. If a URL breaks, split it directly after a slash or dot that
is part of the address, without an inserted hyphen.
While AP generally does not follow a spelled-out name with an
abbreviation or acronym in parentheses, EQ finds that it is necessary to do this, as not everyone who reads Equestrian Quarterly will
be fully familiar with the many acronyms used in the equestrian
world. Furthermore, supplying an abbreviation or acronym after
first giving the full name spares readers the confusion of not knowing what an acronym refers to when they first encounter it.
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14. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE
Voice is a quality of verbs that indicates the relation of the subject
of the sentence to the action of the verb. With active voice, the
subject is the actor or agent; with passive voice, the subject is the
patient or receiver of the action. Passive voice employs the verb to
be and often includes or implies a prepositional phrase beginning
with by. When possible, always use active voice. Compare these
sentences to see the difference between active and passive voices:
To test whether a sentence is active or passive, try inserting “by
zombies” after the verb. If the construction still makes grammatical sense, you have passive voice and need to recast the sentence as
active:
Active voice:
Recast as active voice:
Mary picked all the flowers in the garden.
Someone picked all the flowers in the garden.
Passive voice:
15. AGES
Use ages when relevant to the situation—generally for profiles,
obituaries, significant career milestones, and achievements at an
unusual age. Always use figures:
All the flowers in the garden were picked.
In the second example, the construction implies that the subject
(flowers) were picked by someone who remains unnamed. Thus,
the active voice Firefighters are dousing the blaze with water is preferred over the passive construction The blaze is being doused with
water by firefighters.
Passive voice:
All the flowers in the garden were picked (by zombies).
The horse was 5 years old.
The 5-year-old gelding was the best in its class.
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Use hyphens when ages are expressed as adjectives before a noun or
as substitutes for nouns: a 5-year-old boy, The race is for 5-year-olds.
Use suspensive hyphenation to join multiple hyphenated modifiers: The birthday party was for 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds.
16. CAPITALIZATION
AP Style is generally a ‘down’ style, that is, it uses lowercase words
unless there is a very good reason or an actual rule denoting that a
certain word should be capitalized. This means using articles (the,
an, a) in lowercase unless the article is part of the name of a book,
newspaper, etc., for example, The New York Times, A Clockwork Orange.
Do not capitalize the before the name of a building, hotel, theater,
band, restaurant, etc., even though the article appears as part of
its official business name, unless the word the is the first word in
a sentence: the Rialto, the Fireside Inn, the Rolling Stones; The Rolling
Stones appeared live.
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When brand names are used, capitalize them. Brand names normally should be used only if they are essential to the story, e.g.,
artificial turf instead of AstroTurf. Sometimes, however, the use of a
brand name may not be essential but is acceptable because it lends
an air of reality to a story: He fished a Camel from his shirt pocket
may be preferable to the less specific cigarette.
AP does not officially use either the TM symbol or ® in any of
its news copy. Instead, simply use the brand name as it officially
appears, e.g., AstroTurf, Roquefort cheese, GoreTex, Tabasco sauce. If
a brand name is trademarked in all caps, determine whether it is a
“word” mark or a “graphic” trademark. If it is a “word” mark, do
not keep all caps. If you can’t easily do this from the context, go to
the brand’s website and see how it is treated there.
U.S. trademark law permits the use of another’s mark (whether
registered or unregistered) without their consent if the use of the
mark is made in good faith. Good faith means merely describing
Exception: Keep the initial cap if the starts a name followed by a
the goods or services to which the mark relates or to accurately
trademark or registrada symbol: The Breakers Inn and Resort™, The
indicate compatibility with another’s goods or services. This is
Luge Boys®. While keeping the initial capital letter, however, you
known as fair use protection, under which journalists and others
should not use the trademark, registered mark, or service mark
symbol after a registered mark or trade name. Check the website of can describe events and products that exist in our world.
the entity in question to determine whether the name appears as a
registered mark.
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In keeping with AP’s ‘downstyle’ for capitalization, use lowercase
for job titles that appear on their own or follow a name (in the latter case, they should be set off by commas).
There are exceptions, most notably military and government titles
when they appear before a name: The students were delighted to
meet President Clinton and Captain Kidd. Formal titles include title
government and military titles as well as Miss, Ms., Mr. and Mrs.
(of which the latter three are abbreviated) but not executive business titles, which are essentially job descriptions, e.g. shortstop,
police officer, attorney, special liaison, executive director, founder, chief
executive office, vice president of sales, etc.
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17. COLLECTIVE NOUNS AND VERB USE
Nouns that denote a unit take singular verbs and pronouns: class,
committee, company, corporation, crowd, family, herd, jury, orchestra,
team. Exception: Team names such as the Jazz, the Magic, the Avalanche, and the Thunder take plural verbs.
18. CURRENCIES
Spell out the name of a foreign currency following the amount,
then insert the U.S. dollar equivalent in parentheses:
Japan approved a 1.8 trillion yen ($18 billion) budget.
EXCEPTION: Euros do not need to have a dollar equivalent. When
Similarly, use lower case for general reference to government offices dealing with a non-U.S. dollar currency, use the following abbre-
or departments, reserving capitalization for specifics: the national
viations before the dollar amount on second and subsequent referparks,Yellowstone National Park.
ences: AU$ (Australian), CA$ (Canadian), SG$ (Singapore), NZ$
(New Zealand), HK$ (Hong Kong), NT$ (New Taiwan), ZW$
Capitalize names of groups or associations only when using the full (Zimbabwe).
name: American Quarter Horse Association, the Academy of Arts and
Sciences.
Use lowercase on second reference: the quarter-horse association, the
association, the academy.
The Australian legislature passed a 16 billion Australian dollar
($10.74 billion) bill.
The chairman said that AU$8 billion would be spent on improvements to infrastructure.
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19. DICTIONARY
The official AP dictionary is Webster’s New World College Dictionary.
indicated by the hatch mark for inches, e.g., Diablo, oil on canvas,
20. DIFFERENT FROM
Correct usage is different from (not different than). Than is used
with comparisons of attributes such as size, color, swiftness, etc.
22. DIRECTIONS
Use lowercase for directional indicators that are the points of a
compass (east, west, north, south) except when they refer to specific
geographic regions or popularized names for those regions, which
are usually preceded by ‘the’, e.g., the Midwest, the West Coast, the
The magazine office was quite different from what I had expected.
22” x 48”.
South, the East Coast, the Northeast.
The room was much smaller than my previous office.
21. DIMENSIONS
Use numerals and spell out the unit of measurement. Examples:
The beach is 2 miles long.
The room was 9 feet by 6 feet.
In very technical contexts, use an apostrophe to indicate feet and
double quotation marks to indicate inches, with no space: 9’6”.
Other examples:
He is the 7-foot-3-inch center.
Order 4-by-6-inch prints.
Exception: When describing works of art in captions, sizes may be
23. DECK AND TITLES
EQ style is for titles to use initial caps and no punctuation unless
the title is a grammatically complete sentence.
Deck copy uses sentence-case for capitalization and no period, unless the deck is a grammatically complete sentence.
Story title: Riding with the Queen of Horses
Full-sentence deck: The Olympic champion tells all.
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24. EACH OTHER / ONE ANOTHER
Each other is used when speaking of two persons; one another is
used for more than two.
Mary and John traded horses with each other.
Several spectators were sharing food with one another.
25. FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES
Foreign expressions that have been universally accepted or adopted by the English language may be used without explanation if
they are clear in the context, e.g., a la mode, après ski, bon vivant, bon
voyage, et cetera/etc., versus. If an uncommon foreign expression is
needed in a story, place it italics on first reference and provide an
explanation:
As he left, he said,
“Ad astra per aspera,” a Latin phrase meaning “to the stars through
difficulty.” Note the quotation marks around the given meaning.
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26. FRACTIONS
For one and a half, use 1 ½. Insert a full space between a whole
number and these fractions: 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, and 7/8, which
are set as built fractions. For other fractions, insert a hyphen to
separate numerator from denominator: 1-12/15
27. GENDERED TERMS
While AP style allows gender-specific terms, modern usage encourages us to avoid them where possible. For example, instead
of using anchorman and anchorwoman, use anchor or co-anchor;
use chairperson, chair, or co-chair instead of chairman and chairwoman. Preferred nongendered terms include firefighter and letter
carrier. While AP says Man and mankind are acceptable when referring to both men and women and no other word is convenient,
frequently the better choice is a substitute such as humanity, humankind, a person, or an individual.
28. GRAMMAR
For specific grammar questions, see grammarly.com/handbook/
29. LONG DASH (EM DASH)
A long dash is used to indicate an abrupt change of topic within
a sentence. Do not insert a space before or after a long dash. In MSWord, a long dash is formed by using two hyphens after the word
before the dash, then typing the following word and a space. (The
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long dash will appear as soon as you insert the space after the word
following the hyphens.) This is a long dash:—an automatic character made from two hyphens. When text in a Word file is copied
into an InDesign layout, however, this formatting is usually lost,
so proofers will have to check the original manuscript to be sure
long dashes are carried over.
30. NAMES OF CITIES, STATES, AND COUNTRIES
Cities
When using the name of a city that is not well known, write the
state with it for the first mention. Certain well-known cities never
require a state or country listed: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston,
Los Angeles, Orlando, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco,
Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Similarly, well-known international cities such as London, Paris, and Tokyo may be used without including
a country name. Refer to the AP Stylebook for any city names not
listed here.
States
In May 2014, AP changed its style regarding state names. AP now
spells out state names in the body of stories, noting that the
change brings consistency in AP style for domestic and international stories. Standard abbreviations for state names can still be
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used in captions, tables, editor’s notes, and credit lines. If a state
name follows that of a city, town, or village in running copy, insert
a comma after the state name. When using an abbreviation for the
name, use the standard abbreviation (below), not the postal code
abbreviation.
Yes. Mass.
No: MA
Note that state names of five or fewer letters are never abbreviated.
Never abbreviate Washington when referring to the District of
Columbia.
AP state abbreviations:
Alabama: Ala.
Alaska: Alaska
Arizona: Ariz.
Arkansas: Ark.
California: Calif.
Colorado: Colo.
Connecticut: Conn.
Delaware: Del.
District of Columbia: D.C.
Florida: Fla.
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Georgia: Ga.
Oklahoma: Okla.
Hawaii: Hawaii
Oregon: Ore.
Idaho: Idaho
Pennsylvania: Pa.
Illinois: Ill.
Rhode Island: R.I.
Indiana: Ind.
South Carolina: S.C.
Iowa: Iowa
South Dakota: S.D.
Kansas: Kan.
Tennessee: Tenn.
Kentucky: Ky.
Texas: Texas
Louisiana: La.
Utah: Utah
Maine: Maine
Vermont: Vt.
Maryland: Md.
Virginia: Va.
Massachusetts: Mass.
Washington: Wash.
Michigan: Mich.
West Virginia: W. Va.
Minnesota: Minn.
Wisconsin: Wis.
Mississippi: Miss.
Wyoming: Wyo.
Missouri: Mo.
Montana: Mont.
Nebraska: Neb.
Nevada: Nev.
New Hampshire: N.H.
New Jersey: N.J.
New Mexico: N.M.
New York: N.Y.
North Carolina: N.C.
North Dakota: N.D.
Ohio: Ohio
Countries
Spell out the name of a foreign country on first reference. When
abbreviating United States, insert periods after the letters: U.S.
Exception: USA, the abbreviation for United States of America, appears without periods. Other well-known country names or unions
may be similarly abbreviated after first reference, e.g., United Kingdom, U.K.; European Union, E.U.; but United Arab Republic, UAR. (See
entry under Abbreviations.)
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race.
31. NAMES OF SEASONS
Lowercase spring, summer, fall, winter, and their derivatives such
as springtime unless part of a formal name:
In the second sentence, the subject is gate, which is singular.
Therefore, the verb should be is rather than are. The noun closest
to the verb is not necessarily the subject of the sentence and may
in fact be the object of a preposition modifying the subject.
The next competition will be held next spring.
She represented the U.S. in the recent Summer Olympics.
The photos were taken at the 2013 Ocala Winter Equestrian Gala.
32. NUMBER AGREEMENT
Writers should always take care that the subject of a sentence
agrees with the verb. A singular subject requires a singular verb,
and a plural subject requires a plural verb.
Correct: A horse’s attitude and performance are consistent with its over-
When or connects compound subjects, the noun closest to verb
determines its number:
Many stallions or one mare is available. Collective nouns and pronouns take plural verbs: All were imbibing. His first horse crop are now
yearlings. Another problem of number involves a singular noun and
a subsequent reference.
Incorrect: Churchill Downs has done a good job of keeping their races
filled.
all health.
Correct: Churchill Downs has done a good job of keeping its races filled.
Incorrect sentence: A full gate of horses are not necessary for an excit-
For more on agreement of collective nouns and verbs, including
ing race.
Correct sentence: A full gate of horses is not necessary for an exciting
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exceptions, see Collective Nouns in this guide.
seventy-five.
33. NUMBERS AND NUMERALS: GENERAL
RULES
Spell out numbers from zero to nine: There were eight horses in the
barn. Numbers ten and over are expressed in numerals. There were
10 horses in the barn. Thousands are expressed incorporating commas, thus:1,350; 303,234. For numbers in billions, trillions, etc.,
follow the same rule: eight million, 23.4 billion. When two numbers
with different style rules are used in the same sentence, use the
rule for the larger number: The vehicle can accommodate 6 to 12
Avoid using “A total of” to get around this rule, i.e., do not use A
total of 843 horses were sold by Fasig-Tipton Co. Rather, write
Fasig-Tipton Co. sold 843 horses at an auction.
people.
Always use numerals for the following: ages, sums of money, time of
day, percentages, house numerals, years, days of month, degrees of temperature, proportions, votes, scores, speeds, time of races, dimensions,
and serial numbers. Note that when writing a percentage in running
copy, the word percent is always spelled out: 52 percent.
Use Roman numerals (IV, III) for popes, royalty, and wars.
Never use figures to begin a sentence, Fifteen horses went
to the post, (not 15 horses went to the post.) unless the number is a
year, 1976 was a good year. For large numbers that must be spelled
out at the beginning of a sentence, use a hyphen to connect a
number-word ending in y to another word: fifty-three, four hundred
When writing ordinals, follow the same rules as for numerals,
writing out ordinals from first to ninth and using numerals thereafter, followed by the appropriate suffix. The suffix should appear
in the same typographic font as the numeral (i.e., not in smaller
type super-imposed). Correct: first, sixth, ninth; 10th, 103rd, 22nd. Incorrect: 10th, 103rd, 22nd.
34. PHOTO CAPTIONS
The AP Online Stylebook entry for photo captions runs to five
printed pages. It starts with three basic rules for photo captions,
all of which it warns are mandatory (in all caps). These rules seem
to presume a single news photo that would accompany a news
story and include attributing off-photo actions, city and state identifications, supplying the date and day of the week that the photo
was made, and noting the photographer’s name and source of the
photo, among other things.
For EQ’s editorial style and relaxed photo spreads, only the first
part of the first AP rule seems to make sense: The first sentence of
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the caption should describe, in the present tense, who [or what]
is in the photograph and what is going on. For EQ, this can be a
complete sentence or a few words, always followed by a period:
describe groups or galleries of photos clockwise; start only the first
description with a capital letter (unless a later description starts
with a proper noun), separate the descriptions with a semicolon,
Jenny Garth grooms Serendipity, her favorite horse. Jenny with Serendipity and end the block with a period. Use Roman type for captions; the
in the barn.
sample captions below are in italics only to set them off as examples.
Other AP caption rules for us to follow include:
For example, to describe more than one photo on the same page
Names of persons shown should always be listed in left-to-right
using a running caption block:
order, unless there is an important reason to vary this order.
When multiple people are pictured, there must be enough references to each person’s placement in the photo so there is no confusion as to the identity of each.
As for other elements of EQ’s caption style, these have varied from
numbered images to caption blocks (with or without numbers) to
a freestanding caption placed next to or below each image. These
solutions are all acceptable according to the needs of creating a rationalized layout. The important thing is to be consistent in style,
e.g., insert a comma after the page indicator when one is necessary; capitalize the position indicator and follow it with a colon;
Top: The barn and pasture area. Right: The new area includes a stable for a
dozen horses. Below left: One of the farm’s new foals.
Top to bottom: The barn and pasture area; the new area includes a stable
for a dozen horses; one of the farm’s new foals.
For a group of unnumbered photos:
Clockwise, from top left: The new barn at Equity Acres; horses gambol in
the back pasture; some of Jenny’s competition trophies.
For a single block that describes photos on a spread:
This page, top: Jenny grooms Serendipity; relaxing after a long day; attending a precompetition cocktail bash. Opposite page, from left: Jenny’s
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husband and manager, Marc Blythe; out on the trail with children Tom and
Jessica; meeting fellow competitors in Ocala.
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I am tired of trying to keep up with Mary and Edward Jones.
In numbered captions, each number and description is followed by
a period; each description begins with a capital letter. When necessary, indicate the order of the numbers, e.g.:
I am tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses.
Clockwise, from top: 1. Jenny grooms Serendipity. 2. Relaxing after a long
day. 3. Attending a precompetition cocktail bash. 4. Jenny’s husband and
manager, Marc Blythe. 5. Out on the trail with children Tom and Jessica. 6.
Meeting fellow competitors in Ocala.
Last summer I visited President Bush’s house in Maine.
35. PLURALS OF NAMES /LETTERS / NUMERALS
In most cases, add an s to a proper noun or name to form the plural, never an apostrophe. (Adding an apostrophe creates a possessive form.)
The ranch is owned by the Gonzalezes.
The Bushes spend their summers in Maine.
To form the plural of single letters, add ‘s:
Mind your p’s and q’s.
The Oakland A’s won the pennant.
Her report card showed three A’s and two B’s.
The house was owned by Louis Miller.
The Miller family owned the house.
The Millers owned the house.
It was the Millers’ house.
For proper nouns ended in s or letters that create an s or sh sound,
add es to form the plural:
For multiple letters, add s:
He knows his ABCs.
The gambler had too many IOUs.
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Only two VIPs sat in the VIP box.
pear in every paragraph of a quotation. Do not use colons to introduce quotations. Instead clearly attribute them within the text.
For numbers, add only s:
“I always wear blue dresses,” she said. “They make my cheeks look rosy.”
The airline just bought a fleet of 747s.
If the quotation forms a long paragraph, insert the attribution as
early as possible. Do not simply tack it onto the end.
The tradition dates from the 1930s.
Temperatures were in the low 40s all day.
Do not use parentheses within a quote, unless they enclose an explanation, word, substitution, or comment inserted by the editor,
in which case square brackets are used.
For other plural forms, refer to the dictionary.
36. POSSESSIVES
For singular proper names that end in s, use just the apostrophe:
Agnes’ dress.
“I never got along with [that friend] until college,” Martha said.
Spell out words that would otherwise be abbreviated when they
appear within a quotation, e.g., Mr. Rogers had a puppet. “Mister Rogers,” she said, “that is a pretty shabby puppet.”
For plural nouns not ending in an s, add ’s: men’s polo, the children’s
playroom
For plural nouns ending in s, form the plural and then add only
an apostrophe: drivers’ licenses, the Millers’ farm, the Joneses’ dog, the
houses’ proportions.
37. QUOTATIONS
All quotation must be clearly attributed, and attribution must ap-
38. TIME OF DAY
For times of day, use numerals (set minutes off from hours with a
colon) followed by a space and the appropriate morning or afternoon abbreviation. Note the periods used in the abbreviations (2
a.m., 11:30 p.m., 9-11 a.m., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Indicate daylight saving or
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standard time in zone abbreviations (EST, PDT).
LA Abbreviation for Los Angeles is acceptable on second reference
39. WORD AS A WORD
Use italics when a word is being used as a word, or a letter as a
letter.
mic (short for microphone)
The speaker could not pronounce the w in flower.
percent
media (mass communications; plural)
OK, OKs, OK’d, OK’ing
on-screen
Ph.D. (sing.), Ph.D.s (pl.)
40. WORDS / USAGE
Some common words in the forms accepted by AP:
Q-and-A
rack (He racked his brain for the answer. BUT wracked for disease-wracked and
cellphone
similar expressions
check box
real estate (n., adj.)
click through (v.)
resume (no accent over the final e)
click-throughs (n.)
ring tone
data (treat as plural in most cases)
screen saver
decision-maker
screen shot
the eleventh hour (exception to ordinal rule)
semi-automatic
farmers market
slide show
Google, Googling, Googled
smart phone
-grader (Hyphenate in combining form: a fifth-grader)
social networking (n.)
ground zero
stand-alone (adj.)
hot spot (Wi-Fi access)
sync, syncing
ID, ID’d, ID’ing
touch screen (n.), touch-screen (adj.)
4IM, IMed, IMing
train wreck
K for kilometer (5K run) and for modem speeds (56K), with no space, but not to
upper left corner, upper right corner
mean 1,000 or $1,000
U.S. (n., adj.)
vice president, vice presidential
voice mail
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Western (for film or book), western (for country music)
Several useful takes on the AP style guide, some produced by
university journalism schools, are available online. They include
points not addressed in this stylesheet. Here are links to a few of
them:
scribd.com/doc/191842826/A-Primer-on-AP-Style
brandeis.edu/communications/digital/images/apstyle.pdf
deanza.edu/webguide/omniupdate/ap_styleguide.pdf
uwyo.edu/cessupport/_files/docs/ap_style_guide.pdf
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