2. Objectives
• 4b2 -Periods in common abbreviations (e.g., titles of
address, days of the week, months of the year)
• LS2
• WS2
2
3. Months without dates
• Always capitalize and write out:
The election is in November.
School starts in August.
He hopes to graduate in December.
It will start in January 2000.
The battle ended in October 1866.
If there’s just a month and a year, no comma!
3
5. Dates
• Write out months of 5 or fewer letters:
– March 30, 2000 Don’t use ordinal numbers like:
– April 5, 1974 March 10th
– May 26, 1998 May 1st
– June 12, 1863 June 23rd
– July 31, 1997 (But July Fourth is OK!)
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6. Now you try!
• June 3rd
• June 3
• They will visit in Oct.
• They will visit in October.
• December 7, 1941
• Dec. 7, 1941
• He graduated in May, 1997.
• He graduated in May 1997.
6
7. Now you try!
• Nov. 12th
• Nov. 12
• January 1999
• Correct.
• Which months are never abbreviated?
• March, April, May, June, July
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8. Copy-edit
The tax was scheduled to expire on January 15,
1999, but in August 1998, legislators passed a bill
to extend the levy until July 1st, 2005.
The tax was scheduled to expire on
Jan. 15, 1999, but in August 1998, legislators
passed a bill to extend the levy until July 1, 2005.
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9. Days of the week
• Simple rule:
• Always write them out!
– Monday
– Tuesday
– Wednesday...
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10. Places
• Write out states when they stand alone:
– She is from New Jersey.
– He was born in Alaska.
– Killer bees invaded Texas.
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11. Places
• Abbreviate the state if:
– It’s preceded by a town or city
– The state has 6 or more letters
– Don’t abbreviate: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa,
Maine, Ohio, Texas, Utah
– Check AP Style for state abbreviations
AP doesn’t use the postal code abbreviations!
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12. Places
He is from San Mateo, Calif.
The game will be in Morgan, W.Va.
They met in Austin, Texas.
She lives in Hilo, Hawaii.
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13. Omit the state if...
• You write for a publication
covering that state:
– A tornado flattened Hopewell today.
– The new city manager is from Norfolk.
• It’s a widely known city
(See “Datelines” in the AP Stylebook.)
– The 1998 Olympics were in Atlanta.
– A hurricane hit Miami last year.
13
14. Always include the state if...
• The town straddles the state line:
– The meeting was held in Bristol, Va.
• There could be some confusion:
– After growing up in Springfield, Ill.,
he worked in Springfield, Va.
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15. Now you try!
• They flew to San Francisco, Calif.
• They flew to San Francisco.
• She taught in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• She taught in Knoxville, Tenn.
• Anchorage, Alaska, is a beautiful place.
• Correct.
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16. Streets and addresses
• If it’s an exact address, abbreviate
everything you can (the direction & “street,” “boulevard” and “avenue”):
– 901 W. Main St.
– 2005 Grove Ave.
– 70 Monument Blvd.
• If there’s no street address, spell out:
– He lives on Floyd Street.
– The building is on Monument Boulevard.
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17. Streets and addresses
• Always write out “road,” “drive,”
“circle” and “court.”
– 1067 Staples Mill Road
– 10215 Windbluff Drive
17
18. Now you try!
• 945 West Franklin Street
• 945 W. Franklin St.
• … on First Street in Richmond.
• Correct.
• It’s at 10532 West Broad St.
• It’s at 10532 W. Broad St.
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19. Names and titles
• On first reference,
use a person’s full name
• On subsequent references, use the last name only
(for adults; for kids, use the first name)
• Generally, no courtesy titles (Mr., Mrs., Ms.) unless
there’s confusion
• Use courtesy titles in a direct quote
19
20. Now you try!
• Mr. Tom Ferguson will speak.
• Tom Ferguson will speak.
• “Mrs. Allen will accompany me,” the candidate
said.
• Correct.
• The Smiths both ate the shrimp, but only Mr. Smith
got sick. “He was up all night,” Mrs. Smith said.
• Correct.
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21. Names and titles
• If used directly before a name,
abbreviate:
Formal titles accompany
– Gov. Mark Warner only the full name.
– Dr. Terry Oggel Example: Sen. Barbara
Boxer, not Sen. Boxer.
– Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine
– Rep. Robert Scott
– Sen. John Warner
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22. Names and titles
• Don’t abbreviate:
– Superintendent Albert Williams
– Commonwealth’s Attorney David Hicks
– Professor Paula Otto
– Attorney General Mark Earley
– President Eugene Trani
– Chairman Yasser Arafat
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23. Which titles to abbreviate?
• Professor
• No.
• District Attorney
• No.
• Governor
• Yes: Gov.
• President
• No.
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24. Names and titles
• the Rev.
– Always includes “the”
– the Rev. Billy Graham
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25. Names and titles
• For state and federal legislators,
put political party ID after name
– Use “R” or “D,” then a hyphen ...
– Then the state abbreviation
(for members of Congress)
or the city (for state legislators)
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26. Names and titles
• Examples of state and federal legislators, on first reference:
– U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., …
– U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., …
– State Sen. John Watkins, R-Chesterfield, ...
– Delegate Emily Couric, D-Charlottesville, ...
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27. Periods in abbreviations
• Use periods if the abbreviation
spells an unrelated word:
– c.o.d. - not cod (like the fish)
– U.S. - not US (like “Give US liberty!)
– U.N. - not UN (like UN-American)
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28. Speaking of U.S. and U.N.
• Write out United States and United Nations when
they are nouns
• Abbreviate them when they are adjectives
– In the United States ...
– … the U.S. Army
– … the U.N. peacekeepers
– at the United Nations today ...
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29. Periods in abbreviations
• Otherwise, no periods
– North Atlantic Treaty Organization > NATO
– American Medical Association > AMA
– Virginia Commonwealth University > VCU
– Federal Bureau of Investigation > FBI
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30. Organizations
• Spell out first reference:
– Public Relations Society of America
• Abbreviate subsequent references:
– PRSA
• Some organizations can be abbreviated on first reference:
– NAACP, AFL-CIO, FBI
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31. Organizations
• When an abbreviation is unfamiliar, use a
shortened name of the organization
– Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce >
the bureau
– Office of Instructional Technology >
the office
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32. Now you try!
• Central Intelligence Agency
• CIA (or the agency)
• National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws
• NORML (or the organization, the group)
• Drug Enforcement Agency
• DEA (or the agency)
• School of Mass Communications
• the school
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33. Symbols
• Always write out cents (not ¢)
and percent (not %)
• Always use numerals with cents
and percent
– 5 cents, 50 cents, 92 cents, 1 cent
– 1 percent, 20 percent, 100 percent
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34. Symbols
• Use $ if it accompanies a number:
– $3 … $10.99 … $2 billion
• Round sums, like clock hours, carry no zeros or punctuation:
– Average gasoline prices rose
from $1 to $1.65.
• Spell out casual uses of money:
– The homeless man asked for a dollar.
– I gave him my two cents.
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35. Now you try!
• The Washington Post costs $0.50.
• The Washington Post costs 50 cents.
• We paid several dollars for the book.
• Correct.
• That doesn’t make cents.
• That doesn’t make sense.
• The plane cost 1 million dollars.
• The plane cost $1 million.
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36. Symbols
• Use “&” only when it’s part of a group’s
name:
– Dow Jones & Co.
– Florida A&M
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37. Miscellaneous
• Abbreviate time zones:
– Eastern Standard Time > EST
• No periods in call letters
– WCVE, WRVA
• Always spell out Fort and Mount
– Mount Vernon, Fort Pickett,
Fort Worth, Mount Trashmore
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38. Miscellaneous
• Abbreviate “Saint” when it is part of a proper noun
(river, city, school, a holy person’s name)
– St. Paul, Va.; St. Lawrence River;
St. Catherine’s School
• Never abbreviate Christmas
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39. Miscellaneous
• Abbreviate Co. (company), Corp. (corporation), Ltd.
(limited) and Inc. (incorporated) when they appear at the
end of a company’s name:
– Reynolds Inc.
– Philip Morris Co.
– Circuit City Corp.
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40. Now you try!
• Weyerhaeuser Company
• Weyerhaeuser Co.
• Westvaco Corporation
• Westvaco Corp.
• W.R.I.C.
• WRIC
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