Customer Reviews

The Associated Press Guide To Punctuation

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Written with lively and direct prose, Rene J. Cappon's guide to punctuation succeeds in being a useful resourse for the busy journalist. No reader need fear about getting bogged down in the finer points of periods. If such a situation threatens to occur, Capon is quick to suggest a workaround. This leaves the stickiest questions even stickier, a real prickle for someone as persnickety as me. But for the journalist, or journalism student, I heartily recommend it.

To those looking for a deeper understanding of punctuation, I caution against this slim tome. Organized into seventeen chapters by punctuation, some of them no more than a half of a page ('The Ampersand') and some as many as sixteen ('The Comma'), the AP GUIDE TO PUNCTUATION lacks the philosophical depth and historical background of recent bestseller EATS, SHOOTS, & LEAVES as well as the dry grammar books of days past. The examples, while fun, are not nearly as comprehensive as one expects in any book that bills itself as a reference.

By way of example, here is the entire entry for Irregular Plurals under 'The Apostrophe':

---

Irregular plurals also take the apostrophe: <i>children's hour, women's rights, gentlemen's traditions, men's club</i>, and so do nouns that are the same in singular: <i>the single moose's antlers, the deer's track, the two corps' travels.</i> The apostrophe stays whether the meaning is singular or plural.

---

No mention is made that it is preferable to disambiguate the singular and plural in such cases. Especially in journalistic writing, where clarity and simplicity are the twin grails of good style.

A dedicated journalist might prefer a true grammar of the English language or the complete and comprehensive AP STYLE BOOK. While they may be dry, they will certainly go a good deal further in answering the questions that arise in all aspects of writing.

As a professional editor for nearly two decades, I heartily recommend this book. Cappon's writing is clear, funny, and creative, and he makes the nuances of punctuation memorable. His reasoning is logical, and his explanations and examples are very helpful. Interestingly, though this is an Associated Press publication, some of the style differs from the official A.P. Stylebook. So if A.P. is your background, be aware of this.

Cappon is a terrific writer, and anyone else who writes would benefit immensely from this lucid guide to punctuation.

It appears that some fool edited the cautionary examples for correctness. (p. 34) The grammar is poor ("verboten" as a noun? (p. 85)), and the usage is non-standard (Commas are "trundled out"? (p.37)). Some passages are self-contradictory ("With Adjectives, p. 37).

This book is not a total disaster, but I can hardly recommend it.

Cappon's book is sloppy, rushed, and incomplete. I can't recommend it to anyone.

The same Pope quotation is trotted out twice (p. 34 & p. 76), the second time clumsily, and both times Cappon renders it incorrectly.

Page 40's entry on commas in series includes a misspelling ("stuf") and a violation of the rule covering capitalization after a colon (which can be found on p. 28).

The "Hands Off" warning from the chapter on quotation marks is dogmatic about handling speech in its raw form: "Grammatical and other errors are the speaker's problems, not yours." Yet what practicing journalist transcribes every "um," "uh," and false start the recorder captures?

When a book that purports to help writers offers more in the way of hindrance--and can't trouble itself to take its own advice--it can only be judged a failure.

This is another post-Strunk & White writing guide that prizes brevity over clarity and cuteness over completeness. If the AP wants a useful punctuation guide, it should start from scratch.

Granted, I read the AP Style Guides reluctantly, but this guide drags them down to a new low and sends me running for the AP Stylebook. #1 rule of writing a punctuation guide: don't break the rules you set forth. There are mistakes throughout this text, but I am most appalled by the chapter on the use of commas: there are more comma errors in this chapter than any other! The best is the one she makes in the sentence following her rule against it! If you want to read this for entertainment's sake, just take it out from the library.

I write for college students; therefore, I decided to review the Associated Press Guide to Punctuation (2003) by Rene Cappon to determine if it would be a helpful resource for college students. I selected this book for review because it focuses specifically on the use of punctuation. Proper use of punctuation is an important component of writing. Because many college courses are writing intensive and demand a higher level of writing skill than expected in high school, mastering strong writing skills, including proper punctuation use, is required for college survival. Punctuation usage rules are tricky; therefore, having a guide to refer to is useful for all students.
Associated Press Guide to Punctuation

This book is based on the Associated Press Stylebook. Stylebooks are books that serve as guides for the writing in a particular academic field, organization or other group. The Associated Press is a newsgathering organization. Their stylebook guides the writing of many other news organizations throughout the Untied States.

Upon review of Associated Press Guide to Punctuation, I found his book to offer simple and straightforward rules on how to use punctuation based on the Associated Press Stylebook. I believe it would be very helpful for anyone uncertain of when or how to use a particular punctuation mark or who needs a quick, simple solution. However, the straightforward solutions offered by this book can be a drawback as well for some college students because punctuation usage rules are not universal. Punctuation rules vary among types of writing. This book does not, nor was it intended to, cover all of the types of writing expected throughout college classrooms.

The use of the serial comma is an example of how this book may provide rules that conflict with other reference guides. Serial commas separate items in a series, such as in the following sentence: He invited Mary, Rachel, Janet and Samantha to the party. Commas separate the items in this series. Should a comma have followed the name Janet prior to the word `and'? Writing styles vary on the topic. However, on page 40, of this book the author states, "No coma goes before the final conjunction." (The conjunction in the example sentence is the word 'and.') There is no mention of writing styles that would use a comma before the word 'and' in the example sentence. This is because the intent of this guide is to give specific instructions based on only the Associated Press Stylebook. However, a student in a psychology class (especially an upper-level class) is likely required to follow the stylebook produced by the American Psychological Association. This stylebook states that a comma should follow the conjunction in a series.

Despite the drawback of only explaining the Associated Press's take on punctuation, I believe this book offers many benefits to college students. It is small, lightweight, and easy to read. It could easily be carried in a book bag for handy punctuation reference when studying. Students who have declared a major should use the stylebook of their academic field. However, this book can make a nice supplement as it covers punctuation points not covered in many stylebooks. It could also be helpful for a student who has not yet committed to a particular academic field.

I asked a journalist for the New York Times to suggest a volume for my reference . His choice was Assoc. Press Guide to Punctuation. I have found it useful and easily understood.

There's no mystery here, and it's not intended to be a grammatically pristine work of art. It is, after all, a 96-page reference manual. If you are used to writing/editing literary and academic styles and need to refresh your memory on the punctuation variables in journalistic writing, this is an easy point-to reference that won't take up any more of your precious time than absolutely necessary.

What can you say about all those commas, periods, question marks, and other puncuation? A lot! And this little book is a gem to help you write it correctly. You need it for your reference library.

For journalists, the AP style guides are pretty much the gold standard (or silver, depending on your economic policy leanings). With so much terrible grammar and punctuation, and often lack of punctuation, present in today's world, this is a must-have for aspiring writers, especially journalists.