A Few AP Style Rules to Keep in Mind this Summer

We know journalists are busy, and it can be difficult to keep up with recent AP Stylebook changes. So we’ve done the work for you, rounding up a few of the recent significant — and just plain interesting — updates to the AP Stylebook.

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Will you be covering the World Cup? What about Pride Month? Writing about summer events in your city? We’ve gathered a few timely AP Style rule changes and reminders to help with your stories over the next few months.

Summer Terms

• Don’t forget to lowercase the seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter.
• It’s barbecue, not barbeque, Bar-B-Q or BBQ.
• Hot dog is two words. Sunburn, sunscreen and heatstroke are written as one word.
• SPF is OK to use in any reference, as it’s more well-known than sun protection factor.
• When reporting on summer weather, remember to use figures for all temperatures except zero (“The day’s high will be 85,” for example).
• There’s no apostrophe in farmers market, which refers to the plural of farmers.
• It’s the National Park Service, not Parks plural.
• For offices that close early on Fridays during the summer, AP Style recommends formatting it as “summer Fridays,” with the quote marks and lowercase summer.

World Cup

The international soccer tournament kicks off this week and will run through mid-July and is sure to dominate headlines. Keep these rules in mind when writing about the games or surrounding events:

• Soccer is the preferred term in the U.S., but around the world, the sport is referred to as football.
• FIFA is acceptable on first reference for the Federation Internationale de Football Association. However, you should refer to it as the international soccer governing body rather than spelling out the French acronym.
• Written as one word: Backpass, goalkeeper or goalie (don’t use goaltender), midfielder, offside and sideline.
• No hyphen is needed in free kick or red card.
• It’s defender, not defenseman.
• Writing about save percentages for goalies? The correct format is: He had a .856 save percentage.

Upcoming Holidays

• Juneteenth
  • June 19 is observed as a legal holiday in the United States. It commemorates the end of slavery in the country.
  • The holiday’s federal name, according to the United States Code, is Juneteenth National Independence Day.
  • It is also called Black Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day and Juneteenth Independence Day.
• Pride Month
  • Capitalize Pride when referring to events or organizations honoring LGBTQ+ communities and on subsequent references (“They celebrated Pride Day,” or “It’s the city’s largest Pride event,” for example). Lowercase pride when referring to generic events or the general concept of LGBTQ+ pride (“She and her friends attended a gay pride parade.”).
  • LGBTQ+ is acceptable in all references for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning, plus other sexual and gender minorities. Fewer or additional letters can be used to be more inclusive or in quotations and names of organizations and events.
  • Pride Day is June 28, but it is celebrated throughout June.
  • View the Stylebook’s topical guide on gender, sex and sexual orientation.
• Father’s Day
  • Note the placement of the apostrophe.
  • Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June.
  • Generally, capitalize “dad” only when it acts as a substitute for the person’s name and lowercase it otherwise (“We celebrated Dad with a day on the golf course” vs. “I took my dad to the golf course.”).
• Fourth of July
  • Fourth of July, July Fourth and Independence Day are all acceptable when writing about the holiday.
  • Remember that there’s no hyphen in firework. Also, see notes about hot dogs and barbecue in the “Summer Terms” section above.

Other style rules to know…

• The Stylebook recently added a new entry for data centers, the large buildings housing the chips, servers and computers to process and analyze data. Data centers primarily used for AI are sometimes called AI data centers, AI computing facilities, AI supercomputers or AI factories.
• Ebola is a virus that causes a severe and often fatal illness. It is named for a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where one of the first outbreaks of the disease occurred in 1976. Ebola virus comes from wild animals and then spreads from person to person through direct contact with an infected person or contaminated materials. People are not infectious until they develop symptoms, and the incubation period is two to 21 days.
• It’s nearly summer, and that means you’re likely receiving a lot of invitations to weddings, graduations, birthday parties, Fourth of July gatherings, etc. RSVP is OK to use on all references.
• Other new terms recently added to the Stylebook include jumpscare, fanbase, lipsync, offside and primetime. They are all written as one word, with no hyphen.
• Responding to popular demand, AP Stylebook recently changed its rule and healthcare is now written as one word in all uses. Childcare and daycare are also now written as one word.

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