AP Stylebook Abridged Condensed Cliff Notes Cheat Sheet Version
PUNCTUATION

Exclamation points - Take it easy with these! Never use more than one at the end
of a sentence!! Watch that you don't write a string of sentences all ending in (!) or
you will exhaust the reader! Use the mark only to express a high degree of
surprise, incredulity or other strong emotion. Use a comma after mild interjections
and end mildly exclamatory sentences with a period.

Quotation marks - Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks. The
dash, semicolon, question mark and exclamation mark go inside the quotation
marks when they apply to the quoted material. They go outside when they apply
to the entire sentence.
Use quotes around one word sparingly. Here are the rules:
Irony: Put quotation marks around a word or words used in a ironical sense.
Unfamiliar terms: An unusual word or words being introduced to readers may be
placed in quotation marks on first (only) reference. Do not put subsequent
references in quotations. Use this rarely and carefully.

Colons - Capitalize the first word after a colon if it is the start of a complete
sentence.

Ellipsis - In general, treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word with three periods and
two spaces, one on each side ( ... ). Use an ellipsis to indicate the deletion of one
or more words when condensing quotes, texts and documents. Always leave a
space on either side of the ellipsis. Do not use them at the beginning or end of a
direct quote from a person. Never use more or less than three.
For hesitation and special effects: An ellipsis also may be used to indicate a pause
or hesitation in speech or a thought that is not completed. However, this should
only be done on the blogs where the writing is casual and personal. Formal,
official writing on Web sites should not use an ellipsis in this manner.

Hyphens (and the compound modifier) – When a compound modifier – two or
more words that express a single concept – precedes a noun, use hyphens to link
all the words in the compound except the adverb very and adverbs that end in –ly.
EX: Mary is a first-time homeowner and a full-time mom.
BUT! Many combinations that are hyphenated before the noun are not
hyphenated when they come after the noun.
EX: Mary is a mother full time.
Numbers: When large numbers must be spelled out, use a hyphen to connect a
word ending in –y to another word (twenty-five).
WORD USE AND CAPITALIZATION
Americans love to capitalize everything. Ye olde English is full of random capitalizations
for emphasis. This is still often done, but the practice is generally confined to advertising,
so, please, take it easy with generic words you are tempted to capitalize. Some of these
might look wrong, but these are straight out of the AP Stylebook. Here are the biggies:
1. Capitalize “The” in The Fuller Center for Housing. It’s part of our formal title.
Watch usage, though. For example, you would say the Fuller Center’s president
spoke at the headquarters of The Fuller Center. In the first use, “the” goes with
“president,” not Fuller Center, so it is not capitalized.
2. If you start a sentence with a number, you must spell out that number, including
dates and years. Try to re-write the sentence instead if cumbersome.
3. Titles: president/board of directors/board chairman, etc. – Board of directors
is always lowercase. In general, confine capitalization to formal titles used
directly before an individual’s name. Lowercase titles when they are not used
with a person’s name. EX: The board chairman gave a speech. Chairman Bob
gave a speech. At the meeting, board Chairman Bob spoke.
Lowercase and spell out titles when they are set off from the name by commas.
Capitalize “president” only when directly in front of David’s name. EX: The
Fuller Center’s president, David Snell, went to North Korea.
4. Web site & Web page – You will see disparities everywhere, but according to
the AP Stylebook, it is two words, beginning with a capitol W because “Web” is
short for the formal “World Wide Web.” Therefore, Web site and Web page.
Newly-created words are lowercase, such as webcast, webmaster and webcam.
5. Church – capitalize as part of the formal name of a building, congregation or
denomination. Lowercase when it is spoken of as an institution. For example, “the
church” and “church and state” are not capitalized.
6. Annual – An event cannot correctly be called an “annual event” unless it has
been held for at least two consecutive years. Do not use the term “first annual.”
Instead, just say “first” and note that sponsors plan to hold the event every year.
7. a.m. and p.m. – Lowercase with periods.
8. Amid, not amidst. Toward, not towards. Forward, not forwards.
9. Directions and regions – Lowercase when indicating compass directions.
Capitalize when indicating a region of the country. EX: The woman with the
Southern accent left the restaurant to continue driving east.
Web Writing Tips
Writing for the web means that you have to be a good organizer. The information that
you will place on your page for the whole world to see must be carefully thought out. Use
simple, meaningful words that make sense to the audience.
1. One space between sentences is standard for Web and journalism writing as a
space saver. Two spaces are for more formal writing, such as business letters.
2. Always use something like, “our founder, Millard Fuller” on first reference when
writing a new page, story or document. (Full name + identification.)
3. Be very clear – For main pages, always assume the reader knows nothing and is
not familiar with us or the program you are presenting.
4. Avoid over-use of jargon related to our work without explaining it first.
5. Be concise.
6. Avoid words like “click here” or “follow this link.” Our Web site layout makes it
very obvious what the links are (bold and blue). I know we do this, but it’s not
good practice.
7. If your text is long, or split on several pages, try adding jump navigation links to
other sections in your text to improve scanning.
8. Always make sure that you have no broken links (either internal or external) and
that it is clear enough where the internal links will take the Web user. Test links
before publishing. Outside links must go to a new page so our site remains open.
9. Do not overcharge your page with disjointed information. The text that you write
for the Web page must be relevant for the target audience and organized in an
intuitive manner.
10. Use active verbs (provide, assess, implement, focus, validate, etc.) rather than
passive ones (is being done, are solved, were built). Active verbs give a sense of
vivacity to the text, which becomes more energetic and powerful.
11. Graphical elements must complement text. Insert only images that have relevance
to the text. Avoid full-page graphics, as they can take quite a while to load and
make users annoyed.