AP Stylebook: latest issue published
Jinfo Blog

1st July 2008

Item

The Associated Press http://www.ap.org has just issued the 2008 edition of its Stylebook with over 200 new entries http://digbig.com/4xcxm. This guide to writing is used in each of the AP newsrooms around the world and also in many commercial offices. It is a standard textbook in US journalism courses. Amongst the new entries are iPhone and WMD: those dropped because of their alleged outdatedness include Victrola* and malarkey. I must say that the latter still crops up regularly often in the UK: perhaps there is just less of it around in the US business world? Other neologisms included are medical terms that have become better known among the general public, such as MRI, MRSA, and bird flu. 9/11 is indicated as an acceptable way to refer to the September 11 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon. The Stylebook is produced in both print and online formats – the online version is subscription only and is updated throughout the year. The first AP Stylebook was produced in 1953 and was designed to bring consistency to AP stories produced by writers with their own differing styles of journalism. The version just issued includes primers on how to cover bankruptcy proceedings and to interpret corporate proxy statements. (*Editor’s note: A Victrola was the brand name of a type of gramophone produced by the Victor Talking Machine Company in the 1920s.)

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