10 AP Style Suggestions

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1. Ages are always represented in numerals ("The girl was 2 years old"; "He will be 57 this November").
2. Percentages are always represented thus: 2 percent; 99 percent. We do NOT use the percentage sign (%).
3. We also do not use the serial comma (the final comma in the expression "apples, oranges, and bananas") EXCEPT where its deletion might cause confusion, misreading or misunderstanding.
4. Subheads should be centered in the column, not flush with the paragraph indent.
5. "-like" words are always one word, with no hyphen (spalike, morphinelike, etc. ), EXCEPT when the "like" follows a proper noun or a word ending in a double L, in which case it is hyphenated ("Christ- like," "bell-like").
6. There is an extensive list of pre- and post- words in Webster's that should be one word; if the word does not appear in Webster's, then the AP calls for it to be hyphenated.
7. "Non" and "ultra" words are also one word, as in "nonnegotiable" and "ultrafine." 8. We do not use double spaces after the ends of sentences.
9. Titles of books, films and articles should be put in quotation marks. Names of magazines and news- papers, for some weird reason, are NOT. As a rule, we never use italics for these.
10. "E-mail" is hyphenated; "website" is lowercase and one word; "Web" (when referring to the Internet) is initial capped; "Internet" is initial capped.
In addition NAPS Style has it:
1. In the summary, there should appear spaces around the ///; in other words, a space after the summary and a space after the /// before the headline. That headline should replicate the first six or seven words, at least, of the headline in the story.
2. All headlines should be initial capped.