2019 AP Stylebook Updates to Know
“Asian-American” is now “Asian American”; “10 percent” is “10%”; and “Beyonce” is “Beyoncé.” So says the leading journalistic authority whose stylebook most PR pros follow.
In recent years, introducing Associated Press style changes at the annual conference of the Society for Editing (formerly the American Copy Editors Society but still referred to as “ACES”) has become a tradition. The AP Stylebook editors announce the newest changes in a session that has become one of the biggest events of the conference and always draws a jam-packed room.
In the last several years, some of those changes have been earth-shattering, like taking the hyphen out of “e-mail,” allowing “over” to indicate quantitative relationships as well as spatial, and permitting “they” to refer to a singular subject. This year was a little less dramatic, but still brought some big changes.
For the last three conferences, at St. Pete, Chicago, and, this year, Providence, I’ve had the fortune to be able to attend and, as a member of the organization, offer some representation from PR writers. Below is a rundown of some of the biggest changes that I took away from this year’s conference along with perspectives that I think are important for PR pros to know. The stylebook entries for these changes will be included in the new paperback version of the AP Stylebook and have already been added to the online version.
I hope they’re a help with your writing. If you have any questions or thoughts on them, I would love to know. Please write me at the Contact page on this site.
This year, many of the changes centered on racial, ethnic, and gender entries. This is a delicate but expanding area of style that always requires care. To provide greater assistance in this area, the stylebook has consolidated many of its entries under a new section titled “race-related coverage.”
Here are some of the top changes:
No more hyphens in national-heritage expressions - The stylebook decided to drop hyphens in expressions denoting dual heritage, like “Asian-American,” “African-American” and others. The decision was made after consultation with members of journalism organizations and affinity groups. Dropping a hyphen does not appear to be a big deal, but it reflects a growing acknowledgment among news organizations that racial and ethnic identities are individual, that the individuals have differing views on how to portray themselves, and that news organizations should be aware of those desires.
Using “Latino” - The stylebook also now says that “Latino is often the preferred noun or adjective” for people of Spanish heritage. “Latina” is the feminine form. As for the gender-neutral “Latinx,” the stylebook says its use “should be confined to quotations, names of organizations or descriptions of individuals who request it and should be accompanied by a short explanation.”
“Indians” and “American Indians” - The entry on “Native Americans” was also revised. Where the previous entry allowed the use of “Indian” to refer to “Native Americans” or “American Indians” (the terms themselves are a matter of preference), the new entry says it should not be used as shorthand for “American Indians” and should be reserved for people from South Asia or the nation of India.
Other announcements also marked some big changes:
The “%” symbol is legal – The AP is now allowing the use of “%” with figures instead of requiring “percent.” Instead of “the stock rose 3 percent,” copy that follows AP style can now read “the stock rose 3%.” One reason for not making this change earlier relates to the AP’s client base. Because news organizations have different computer systems to receive AP copy, the material transmitted by the AP must be digestible by them all. In the past, AP warned against sending “nontransmitting symbols” like “*,” “@,” “~,” and the like. Though some systems still can’t digest those, “%” can generally get through now.
Yes way, José - The AP also advised against transmitting any accent marks for the same reason. This, too, has changed: a revised entry allows “accent marks or other diacritical marks with names of people who request them or are widely known to use them, or if quoting directly in a language that uses them.” There is still the caveat that some systems won’t accept them, and it is not blanket permission to use accents on words in English that have them or need them for pronunciation. The AP clarified this usage by explaining that accents are for “people, not places, things, foods, weather systems or anything else.” So, the name of the star from the movie Bridget Jones’s Diary can now be written “Renée Zellweger,” with the accent mark in the first name, but no accent mark would be used for words like “entree,” “cafe,” “décor” or “jalapeno.”
Debunking a myth further - Split infinitives are now even more OK. The previous entry said this: “In general, avoid awkward constructions that split infinitive forms of a verb (to leave, to help, etc.) or compound forms (had left, are found out, etc.).” It continued: “Occasionally, however, a split is not awkward and is necessary to convey the meaning.” The new entry takes a stronger position that splitting infinitives is OK: “In many cases, splitting the infinitive or compound forms of a verb is necessary to convey meaning and make a sentence easy to read. Such constructions are acceptable.” Here’s an example of how avoiding the splitting of an infinitive can make a sentence awkward: “She went to the store personally to thank the employees.” In this case, avoiding a split infinitive – by keeping “personally” out of the middle of “to thank” – results in an awkward construction. The most natural interpretation of “personally” in that place in the sentence is that the woman in question went to the store personally, as if there’s a way to go to a store without going there personally. Of course, the much more natural and common way to write the sentence above is with the infinitive split: “She went to the store to personally thank the employees.” As the AP Stylebook’s slowness in taking a stronger position on split infinitives shows, the myth that splitting an infinitive is somehow wrong is one of the hardest to kill.
“Data” is right - Finally, formalizing the practice that has become widespread for this word, the AP now says “data” typically takes singular verbs and pronouns when used for general audiences and in journalism contexts. For example: “The data was collected over two years.” This follows a long-growing practice. Although the singular form of this word – “datum” – technically still exists, it’s almost never used outside scientific writing, and most language authorities have come to agree that “data” has become a collective noun, like “information.” Good riddance, “datum”!