3 AP style rules worth remembering

Consistency in messaging is crucial in establishing a brand identity for your company. It’s not just in the words you use, either. The grammar and punctuation of your messages also has an impact.

The AP Stylebook is the holy grail of grammar and punctuation rules for journalists and media professionals, including PR pros. You’ll find a copy of the guide on everyone’s desk in our office, but it’s still common to hear someone call out, “What’s AP style for…” while in the middle of writing.

Here are a few of our most commonly used AP style rules:

Combining sentences

This rule feels like it goes against everything you learned in elementary school. If you’re combining two complete sentences, then always use a comma and a conjunction to combine the two sentences. If one of the sentences is not a complete thought, or if the two verbs share the same subject, don’t use a comma to combine the sentences.

Both of these sentences are correct:

Our team loves AP style, but sometimes we forget the little nuances.

Our team loves AP style and uses it every day.

To hyphenate or not