Transcript Grammar and AP Style

AP Style
2013
(with thanks to Gary Djajapranata)
Day
Day
Day
Day
I: AP Style, Number Rules
II: AP Style, Various Rules
III: HUB Style
IV: Grammar
Unit I: AP Style Number Rules
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Numbers
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Money

Age
NUMBERS: the basic rules
(memorize them!)
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Spell out one through nine
Numerals for any number larger than 10
Yes, it is the numeral 10, (NOT TEN)!
Commas in numerals such as 5,234
Ex) Grace Calhoun has two sisters.
Grace Calhoun has 1,256 admirers.
NUMBERS: Numeric Words
-Most other forms of numeric words follow
the general rules:
third place, 11th place
fourth grade, 12th grade
They have Comp Lit fifth period.
NUMBERS: Millions and Billions
2 million, 8 trillion
(notice that we use the numerals 2 and 8,
not two and eight)
Ex)47 billion, 11 million, 55 quadrillion, etc…
Note: we do not do this for the thousands!
NUMBERS: Decimals and Fractions
Spell out clean fractions less than 1 WITH HYPHEN
one-half, one-third, two-thirds, one-fourth, three-fourths
-
- For any fractional numbers greater than 1, use
NUMERALS ONLY
1.5, 3.75, 15.1
-
For any non-clean fractions less than 1, use numbers
with a 0 preceding the decimal point:
0.44, 0.791
Numbers: Percent

Always spell out percent, never use % sign.
(This is a text rule— graphics can use the %
sign if needed)
50 percent, 25 percent, 0.10 percent, 255 percent
NUMBERS: Important Exception

A numeral cannot begin a sentence, no
matter how big that numeral is.
Eight hundred protesters froze to death
yesterday night.
Three million people wanted to touch Kelly
Wilkerson’s jacket.
Ages: the basic rule
-Always use NUMERALS for ages:
The boy is 9 years old, the baby is 2 months
old.
The kindergartner, 6, went home early.
-
This rule applies to ALL ANIMATE OBJECTS.
Dogs, cats, humans, babies all take numerals
Trees, buildings, schools, DO NOT.
Ages: Hyphenation
- Hyphenate ages when used as a
compound adjective or as a noun.
Ex) 18-year-old Daniel Tutt
The 18-year-old is editor-in-chief of
The HUB.
- But some forms don’t require the hyphen
Ex) Daniel Tutt is 18 years old.
Numeric Exception: Age
-The numeric exception for the beginning of
the sentence APPLIES to ages.
Five years old, the toddler threw up on his
mother.
Seventeen-year-old Chris Garrison is in a
bromance with 18-year-old Nick Juanitas.
Money: the basic rules
Use the $ sign, never spell out ‘dollars’
Ex) $3.23, $6.50
-If it is a clean $ amount, do not put .00
Ex) $5 (NOT $5.00 or five dollars)
-
-
If something is in a CENTS amount, use $ sign
and place a 0 before the decimal point.
$0.50, $0.05, $0.75, etc.
Money: Millions and Billions
How do we write $3,200,000?
$3.2 million
How do we write $4,432,234,591?
…about $4.4 billion (we just approximate to a clean
number)
NOTE: WE DO NOT DO THIS WITH
AMOUNTS IN THE THOUSANDS!!
Numeric Exception: Money
-The numeric exception for the beginning of
the sentence does NOT apply to money.
$5 is required to enter the dance.
$3.2 million dollars will be raised from the
parcel tax.
UNIT II: AP Style, Various Rules
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Time and Dates
Addresses
Titles
Speech Tags
List Separation
Classes vs. Subject Areas
Capitalization Rules
Sports
Miscellaneous Rules
Time
Use numerals and a.m. or p.m.
4:30 a.m., 6:15 p.m.
IF it is exactly on the hour… NO :00
5 p.m., 7 a.m.
Except: spell out noon and midnight
Dates
-Abbreviate: Jan.-Feb. and Aug.-Dec.
-Easy rule: If the month has more than five
letters, abbreviate it
-The date is always just a numeral, never
“the third of March”
Jan. 14, May 17, Dec. 25
Dates: When Months Stand Alone

If there is no specific date, no
abbreviation:
Anna Sturla’s birthday is in January.
BUT: Anna Sturla’s birthday is Jan. 21
Capitalization of Expressions of Time

-
Capitalize:
Months
Days of Week: Monday, Saturday
DO NOT CAPITALIZE:
Seasons: summer, spring, winter, autumn
Addresses
Abbreviate street if in numbered address:
315 W. 14th St.
But if there is no address…
W. 14th Street
Spell out First through Ninth Street when
used as street names. 10th Street, etc. for
the following numeric addresses
Titles: class rank
-senior, junior, sophomore. NO CAPS
Combine titles when more than one senior,
etc.
The HUB’s photographers consist of junior
Lani Chang and seniors Peter Lin, Jenny
Davisson and Anders Young.
Capitalization rules for titles
-Capitalize “important” titles when they come
before the name:
Principal Jacquelyn Moore
Vice Principal Tom McHale
School Board President Sheila Allen
No caps for “unimportant” titles no matter where
they are:
head coach Dan Gonzalez, teacher Kelly Wilkerson
Example: Principal Jacquelyn Moore praised her
vice principals and Sheila Allen, the president of
the school board.
-
Reference Rules

First name and last on first reference, then
last name throughout. Exception: family
members.
Junior Annamarie Pilon, a graphic artist for
The HUB, is rapidly learning AP style. Pilon
believes she can ace the test on Friday.
“No biggie,” Pilon said.
Titles: Other Rules

Never use Mr. or Mrs. when referencing
teachers. It’s just: journalism teacher Kelly
Wilkerson, biology teacher Ann Moriarty

Only use Dr. for medical doctors, not just
Ph.D holders. We DO NOT SAY Dr.
Moore!!! We do NOT say Dr. John Smith,
a professor of chemistry at UC Davis…
Speech Tags
Always use the formula: Person said
Ex) “I love you,” junior Shauna Simon said.

COMMA GOES INSIDE QUOTATION
In fact, ALL punctuation goes inside
quotation
Try Splitting Quotes!
Instead of: “I like to eat food. I wouldn’t live
without it. I’m a food monster,” junior Lani
Chang said.
Try this:
“I like to eat food,” junior Lani Chang said.
“I wouldn’t live without it. I’m a food
monster.”
List Separation Rule

No comma before last item of a list
Senior Peter Lin likes to eat hamburgers,
cheeseburgers, turkey burgers, salmon
burgers, steak burgers, McDonald’s
burgers, Burger King burgers and Habit
Burger burgers.
Classes vs. Subject Areas
Only capitalize official course titles, not
subject areas:
history
European French
History
class
He is a professor of
chemistry.
I like to
Biology I
study
students
biology.
biology
test
economics assignment
Algebra
II/Trig
class
math
test
Economics II
Honors
Physics
lab
Capitalization Rules: Media

CAPITALIZE these items because they are
PROPER NOUNS.
-Facebook, Wikipedia, Google, Twitter, Tumblr,
Internet, etc…
DO NOT CAPITALIZE:
- email, website
 Apple devices: The i is LOWERCASE, the
next letter is CAPITALIZED:
iPod Touch, iPhone 4S, iPad, iMac, etc…

Capitalization Rules: DHS-related
Always Capitalize:
Student Government
Ex) Members of Student Government are meeting
today at lunch.
Do Not Capitalize:
yearbook
Ex) Those losers are yearbook staff members.
AP/HUB Style for Sports
-
JV and varsity
men’s and women’s (no cap)
Do not capitalize names of sports!
And we don’t capitalize the title ‘coach’
It is no. 1, NOT #1. Includes no. 2, no. 3, etc.
Ex) Junior Glenn Hull plays no. 1 on the men’s
varsity tennis team, according to head coach
Dale Hersch.
Miscellaneous AP
No ‘s’ in toward, backward, forward, etc.
 ADVISER, not advisor

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Quotations: when referring to all works of
art, literature, plays, movies, songs, etc.
Ex) “Inception,” “Catcher in the Rye,”
“Don’t Stop Believing”
Unit III: Grammar
Erratic Words
 Ellipses
 Possessives
 Singular vs. Plural
 Hyphens
 Class Periods
 However

Erratic Word Set #1

Since/Because
- ‘Since’ is only an expression of time, as in:
I have not slept since Monday. ‘Since’ cannot be
used to replace ‘because’
INCORRECT: I don’t want to sleep since I’m not
tired.
CORRECT: I don’t want to sleep because I’m not
tired.
Erratic Word Set#2
Who/That
- ‘Who’ denotes a person, ‘that’ denotes a thing.
Check all nouns/pronouns that replace people
and make sure they use the ‘who’ form!!

Incorrect: He is the player that scored the most
points.
Correct: He is the player who scored the most
points.
Erratic Word Set#3
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Over/more than
-
‘Over’ is a preposition; use ‘more than’
when talking about numbers.
Incorrect: The team scored over 50 points.
Correct: The team scored more than 50
points.
The Commonly Erratic Forms

Be careful of form usage in these words:
-They’re, their, there
-Your, you’re
-its, it’s
Possessive: with s
Unlike in standard usage, AP style requires that
a common singular noun ending in ‘s’ does not
add an ‘s’ in its possessive form, but just carries
an apostrophe.
Ex) The albatross’ beak
 A plural noun just takes the apostrophe
Ex) The students’ homework
 A proper noun ending in s just takes the
apostrophe
Ex) Tom Hoss’ pen

Careful with possessives!
-The possessive of ‘student’ is commonly
erratic! Check to see if you’re talking
about one student vs. many!!
Ex) At the basketball game, the students’
cheers deafened the crowd.
Ex) One student’s cheer was very loud.
Singular vs. Plural
These words are SINGULAR subjects and
take SINGULAR verbs and pronouns:
- group, team, class, family
Ex) The family owns its own house.
The team played its very best.
BUT: The team members played their
best.
(What about “couple”? Singular or plural…
your choice!)

Class Periods
Standard numbering rule applies to period:
Ex) It is first period right now. Because it is
Thursday, I’m going to third period next.
CAUTION: Hyphens— sometimes, class periods
take the form of compound adjectives!
Ex) My fifth-period class is AP Chemistry.
Ex) She has Mr. van Muyden as her third-period
chemistry teacher.
Unit IV: HUB Style
The HUB
 DHS
 GPA
 University abbreviations
 Regions in Davis
 HUB Style for Editors
 A little bit of grammar: compound
adjectives!

HUB Style: The HUB
This is the proper capitalization:
The HUB (no quotations or italics)
Other HUB-related words…
HUBster
HUBple
HUBBQ
HUBNOMNOM
HUBBA HUBBA
HUB Style: DHS
In newspaper: It is always DHS on all
references…
On website: It is Davis High School on first
reference, DHS on second reference
Side Note: Da Vinci Charter Academy on
first reference, Da Vinci on repeated
reference
HUB Style: GPA

AP Stylebook says: grade-point-average
However, we say: GPA on ALL references.
Ex) His GPA is 4.33
HUB Style: Universities
-First Reference: UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara
-Repeated Reference: UCD, Cal, UCSB
-UCLA is always UCLA
-Other UCs are not as common so there is no second
reference abbreviation (UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz)
When we speak of the UC system (not a specific
university), it is “University of California” on first
reference, and UC on repeated references.
Ex) University of California President Mark Yudof said the
UC regents will be meeting to discuss the pepper-spray
incident.

HUB Style: Regions in Davis
•
Capitalize North Davis, South Davis, East
Davis, West Davis, Central Davis
•
No capitalization:
downtown Davis
Hyphens in compound adjectives
We went on a 15-mile hike.
BUT: The hike we went on was 15 miles.

The two-hour talk show
BUT: The talk show was two hours long.
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More Hyphenated Expressions
-
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That was a one-time exception
17-year-old Micaela Everitt
The once-beautiful house is now ruined.
The twice-bankrupt man
NOTE: ‘ly’ words that come before a noun don’t
follow this rule because they’re adverbs, not
adjectives
Ex) The exceptionally fast runner beat his record
Ellipses
-Whenever we use …
There are THREE dots, not four or two.
-
In a quote, bracketed ellipses […] signify a
jump to another portion of the interview.
Unbracketed ellipses … in quotes signify a
pause in their speech that you want to
reflect in your writing.
HUB Style: For Editors
-BYLINE TITLES
HUB Staff or Editor-in-Chief
or HUB Correspondent
-Section editors use title in their section only, but there is
no HUB in front of title:
News Editor, Features Editor, In-Depth Editor
-When there is a shared byline with two people of different
titles, the title reverts to: HUB Staff
The HUB