UPAR 2017 08 Associated Press Style

1. Associated Press Style inAssociated Press Style in
Military JournalismMilitary Journalism
Using the AP Style Guide toUsing the AP Style Guide to
create a uniform style in militarycreate a uniform style in military
publicationspublications
SFC Debbi Newton

2. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Objectives
• Become familiar with basic elements of AP Style
• Including:
Rank and Title
Unit identification
Dates, times & locations
• Become familiar with basic AP punctuation
• Including:
Commas
Quotation marks

3. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
CAPITALIZATION
•Capitalize services when referring to U.S. forces; do not
capitalize when referring to foreign military (i.e., U.S. Army,
Iraqi army).
•Capitalize Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine when referring to
U.S. Forces (Per U.S. Army, capitalize Family when referring to
U.S. military families; Per CT PAO, capitalize Veteran and
Retiree.
•Capitalize a rank or title when it preceded a name; use
lowercase when it follows a name or stands alone.

4. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
CAPITALIZATION, CONT.
•Capitalize all proper nouns to include names of people,
organizations, operations and exercises.
•Capitalize common nouns only if they are part of a proper noun,
such as a title or an organization.
•Do not use all capital letters for anything but acronyms.
•Do not capitalize a term just because it is assigned an acronym.

5. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Enlisted Rank
Army
Private (E1 & E2)
Private First Class
Specialist
Corporal
Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Sergeant First Class
Master Sergeant
First Sergeant
Sergeant Major
Command Sergeant Major
AP Style
Pvt.
Pfc.
Spc.
Cpl.
Sgt.
Staff Sgt.
Sgt. 1st
Class
Master Sgt.
1st
Sgt.
Sgt. Maj.
Command Sgt. Maj.

6. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Enlisted Rank
Air Force
Airman Basic
Airman
Airman First Class
Senior Airman
Staff Sergeant
Technical Sergeant
Master Sergeant
Senior Master Sergeant
Chief Master Sergeant
AP Style
Airman
Airman
Airman 1st
Class
Senior Airman
Staff Sgt.
Tech. Sgt.
Master Sgt.
Senior Master Sgt.
Chief Master Sgt.

7. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Commissioned Officers – Army and Air Force
Rank
Second Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant Colonel
Colonel
Brigadier General
Major General
Lieutenant General
General
Warrant Officer (1)
Chief Warrant Officer 2-5
AP Style
2nd
Lt.
1st
Lt.
Capt.
Maj.
Lt. Col.
Col.
Brig. Gen.
Maj. Gen.
Lt. Gen.
Gen.
Warrant Officer
Chief Warrant Officer Two – Five

8. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Unit Identification
Use Arabic figures and capitalize the key words when linked with the figures
YES
102nd
Infantry Battalion
103rd
Fighter Wing
143rd
Military Police Company
Company B, 1st
Battalion, 102nd
Infantry Battalion
NO
102D INF BN
103D FIGHTER WING
143D MP CO
BRAVO, 1-102D INF

9. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Dates & Times
Dates – Always use Arabic figures without st, nd, rd or th
Months – Capitalize the names of months in all uses. When used with a specific
date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.
EXAMPLES
January 1972 was a cold month. Jan. 2 was the coldest day of the month.
His birthday is May 8.
Feb. 14, 1987, was the target date.
Friday, Dec. 3, was the day the accident occurred.

10. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Dates & Times
Time – Use figures except for noon and midnight.
Use a colon to separate hours from minutes.
DO NOT USE MILITARY, 24-HOUR TIME
EXAMPLES - 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m.
NOT – 1100hrs, 1300hrs, 1530hrs
When citing dates and times in print journalism, DO NOT USE “today” or “tonight”.
Instead, use days of the week.
Days of the week are always capitalized, and are never abbreviated.
EXAMPLE
At 3 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 12, all employees will attend the required briefing.

11. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Cities & States
Cities are always capitalized.
States are capitalized and spelled out unless used in conjunction with a postal
address at which time postal abbreviations are used. Two-,Three- or Four-letter
state abbreviations are ONLY used in datelines.
Always spell out Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
EXAMPLES
The Connecticut National Guard headquarters armory
is the Gov. William O’Neill Armory in Hartford, Connecticut.
The William A. O’Neill Armory is located at 360 Broad Street,
Hartford, CT 06105

12. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Datelines
Datelines on stories should contain a city name, entirely in
capital letters, followed in most cases by the name of the state,
country or territory where the city is located.
States should be abbreviated using the 2-, 3- or 4-letter
abbreviation (not the postal abbreviation). Always spell out
Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
Examples:
NIANTIC, Conn. --
FORT DRUM, N.Y. –
FORT HOOD, Texas –
INDIANAPOLIS --

13. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Ala. (AL)
Ariz. (AZ)
Ark. (AR)
Calif. (CA)
Colo. (CO)
Conn. (CT)
Del. (DE)
Fla. (FL)
Ga. (GA)
Ill. (IL)
Ind. (IN)
Kan. )KS)
Ky. (KY)
La. (LA)
Md. (MD)
Mass. (MA)
Mich. (MI)
Minn. (MN)
Miss. (MS)
Mo. (MO)
Mont. (MT)
Neb. (NE)
Nev. (NV)
N.H. (NH)
N.J. (NJ)
N.M. (NM)
N.Y. (NY)
N.C. (NC)
N.D. (ND)
Okla. (OK)
Ore. (OR)
Pa. (PA)
R.I. (RI)
S.C. (SC)
S.D. (SD)
Tenn. (TN)
Vt. (VT)
VA. (VA)
Wash. (WA)
W.Va. (WV)
Wis. (WI)
Wyo. (WY)
Postal abbreviations for states that are always spelled out: Alaska (AK), Hawaii (HI),
Idaho (ID), Iowa (IA), Maine (ME), Ohio (OH), Texas (TX) and Utah (UT). Also
District of Columbia (DC).

14. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Punctuation
The Associated Press Style Guide
Contains 12 pages of guidance
on the use of punctuation.
The Associated Press also publishes a book on punctuation
that contains more than 30 pages on the comma alone. Key point to remember on
commas: DO NOT use a comma when listing similar items before and. EX.: The
color guard was made up of Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines.

15. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Punctuation
Some brief notes on commas …
Use to separate items in a list:
The United States flag is red, white and blue.
Use to separate sentence fragments that can be removed without
changing the meaning of the sentence:
When Joe, the eldest of three children, began smoking …
Use before “but” or “and”:
Several Soldiers passed the APFT, but those who failed …

16. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Quotation Marks & Attribution
“ … “

17. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Attribution
Assigning to a cause or source
In journalism, attribution refers to the assigning of information to a particular source.
You are NOTNOT the subject matter expert

18. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Quotation Marks & Attribution
Quotation marks are used to identify:
Direct quotes (attribution)
Book or movie titles
Nicknames
Irony
Unfamiliar terms – first reference only

19. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Direct Quote
“We had a great sense of unit morale while we were
deployed,” said Staff Sgt. Johnson.
Indirect Quote
Staff Sgt. Johnson said that unit morale was very high
during the unit’s deployment.
Exact wording and context used by the quoted source.
Paraphrasing of what the source said. You get the same information
and context as the original quote, but without the original wording.

20. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
Book & Movie Titles
Nicknames
Irony
Unfamiliar Terms
We all watched “Black Hawk Down” last night.
George “Babe” Ruth hit 714 home runs as a professional baseball player.
According to the report, some unit members received “special” treatment.
Following years of trial and error, Dr. Emmitt Brown was finally able to
achieve time travel through his invention of the “flux capacitor”. The flux
capacitor is now the standard for all time travel devices.

21. AP Style in Military JournalismAP Style in Military Journalism
What are your questions?What are your questions?