In the no-nonsense, authoritative tradition of the best-selling AP Stylebook, the top editors at the AP have written the definitive guide to punctuation. More people write for the Associated Press than for any other news service, and more writers take their style and word-usage cues from this world-famous institution than from any other journalism source. From the when and how of the ampersand to the rules for dashes, slashes, and brackets; from the correct moment for the overused exclamation point to the rules of engagement for the semicolon, The AP Guide to Punctuation is an invaluable and easy-to-use guide to the most important aspect of clear and persuasive writing.
More people write for the Associated Press than for any newspaper in the world, and more writers --over 1,750,000--have bought The AP Stylebook than any other journalism reference. It provides facts and references for reporters, and defines usage, spelling, and grammar for editors. There are separate sections for journalists specializing in sports and business, and complete guidelines for how to write photo captions, proofread text, file copy over the wire, handle copyrights, and avoid libel. This new edition of the Stylebook has been fully updated with fifty new entries and revisions to more than one hundred others in order to keep pace with world events, common usage, and Associated Press procedures. More than 1.7 million copies sold
The bestselling workbook and grammar guide, revised and updated! Hailed as one of the best books around for teaching grammar, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation includes easy-to-understand rules, abundant examples, dozens of reproducible quizzes, and pre- and post-tests to help teach grammar to middle and high schoolers, college students, ESL students, homeschoolers, and more. This concise, entertaining workbook makes learning English grammar and usage simple and fun. This updated 12th edition reflects the latest updates to English usage and grammar, and includes answers to all reproducible quizzes to facilitate self-assessment and learning. Clear and concise, with easy-to-follow explanations, offering "just the facts" on English grammar, punctuation, and usage Fully updated to reflect the latest rules, along with even more quizzes and pre- and post-tests to help teach grammar Ideal for students from seventh grade through adulthood in the US and abroad For anyone who wants to understand the major rules and subtle guidelines of English grammar and usage, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation offers comprehensive, straightforward instruction.
This all-in-one reference is a quick and easy way for book, magazine, online, academic, and business writers to look up sticky punctuation questions for all styles including AP (Associated Press), MLA (Modern Language Association), APA (American Psychological Association), and Chicago Manual of Style. Punctuate with Confidence—No Matter the Style Confused about punctuation? There’s a reason. Everywhere you turn, publications seem to follow different rules on everything from possessive apostrophes to hyphens to serial commas. Then there are all the gray areas of punctuation—situations the rule books gloss over or never mention at all. At last, help has arrived. This complete reference guide from grammar columnist June Casagrande covers the basic rules of punctuation plus the finer points not addressed anywhere else, offering clear answers to perplexing questions about semicolons, quotation marks, periods, apostrophes, and more. Better yet, this is the only guide that uses handy icons to show how punctuation rules differ for book, news, academic, and science styles—so you can boldly switch between essays, online newsletters, reports, fiction, and magazine and news articles. This handbook also features rulings from an expert “Punctuation Panel” so you can see how working pros approach sticky situations. And the second half of the book features an alphabetical master list of commonly punctuated terms worth its weight in gold, combining rulings from the major style guides and showing exactly where they differ. With The Best Punctuation Book, Period, you’ll be able to handle any punctuation predicament in a flash—and with aplomb.
The style of the Associated Press is the gold standard for news writing. With The AP Stylebook in hand, you can learn how to write and edit with the clarity and professionalism for which they are famous. Fully revised and updated, this new edition contains more than 3,000 A to Z entries—including more than 200 new ones—detailing the AP's rules on grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviation, and word and numeral usage. You'll find answers to such wide-ranging questions as: · When should the names of government bodies be spelled out and when should they be abbreviated? · What are the general definitions of the major religious movements? · Which companies do the big media conglomerates own? · Who are all the members of the British Commonwealth? · How should box scores for baseball games be filed? · What constitutes “fair use”? · What exactly does the Freedom of Information Act cover? With invaluable additional sections on the unique guidelines for business and sports reporting and on how you can guard against libel and copyright infringement, The AP Stylebook is the one reference that all writers, editors, and students cannot afford to be without.
The authoritative guide to using the English language effectively, from “the greatest writer on grammar and usage that this country has ever produced” (David Yerkes, Columbia University). The author of The Chicago Manual of Style’s popular “Grammar and Usage” chapter, Bryan A. Garner is renowned for explaining the vagaries of English with absolute precision and utmost clarity. With The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation, he has written the definitive guide for writers who want their prose to be both memorable and correct. Garner describes standard literary English—the forms that mark writers and speakers as educated users of the language. He also offers historical context for understanding the development of these forms. The section on grammar explains how the canonical parts of speech came to be identified, while the section on syntax covers the nuances of sentence patterns as well as both traditional sentence diagramming and transformational grammar. The usage section provides an unprecedented trove of empirical evidence in the form of Google Ngrams, diagrams that illustrate the changing prevalence of specific terms over decades and even centuries of English literature. Garner also treats punctuation and word formation, and concludes the book with an exhaustive glossary of grammatical terms and a bibliography of suggested further reading and references. The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation is a magisterial work, the culmination of Garner’s lifelong study of the English language. The result is a landmark resource that will offer clear guidelines to students, writers, and editors alike. “[A manual] for those of us laboring to produce expository prose: nonfiction books, journalistic articles, memorandums, business letters. The conservatism of his advice pushes you to consider audience and occasion, so that you will understand when to follow convention and when you can safely break it.”—John E. McIntyre, Baltimore Sun
The premier source for journalists, now revised and updated for 2015. Does the White House tweet? Or does the White House post on Twitter? Can "text" be a verb and also a noun? When should you link? For anyone who writes--short stories or business plans, book reports or news articles--knotty choices of spelling, grammar, punctuation and meaning lurk in every line: Lay or lie? Who or whom? That or which? Is Band-Aid still a trademark? It's enough to send you in search of a Martini. (Or is that a martini?) Now everyone can find answers to these and thousands of other questions in the handy alphabetical guide used by the writers and editors of the world's most authoritative news organization. The guidelines to hyphenation, punctuation, capitalization and spelling are crisp and compact, created for instant reference in the rush of daily deadlines. The 2015 edition is a revised and condensed version of the classic guide, updated with solutions to problems that plague writers in the Internet age: · How to cite links and blogs · How to handle tweets, hashtags and other social-media content · How to use current terms like “transgender,” or to choose thoughtfully between "same-sex marriage" and "gay marriage" With wry wit, the authors have created an essential and entertaining reference tool.
Originally available only to Associated Press members, this is the definitive guide to writing and delivering the news on radio, television, and other broadcast media. While the focus throughout is on the art of finding, researching, writing, editing, producing, and delivering authoritative, accurate, and exciting news stories, it also provides a wealth of information on key technical aspects involved, such as how to handle a microphone and how many tape recorders to carry in the field. An indispensable resource for students and experienced broadcast journalists alike, this Handbook also includes a comprehensive, quick-reference style guide covering the established norms and practices in punctuation, tone, diction, use of foreign terms, references, and much more.