Customer Reviews

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law

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The title of this book might lead you to think this is just another grammar book--and one with only print journalists in mind. Not so! If you are looking for a guide that will ensure consistency in all of your corporate literature, I highly recommend this book and its companion "Bible," Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition. Never again will you have to wonder whether to add a hyphen, capitalize a word or use an abbreviation. To me one of the main reasons why documents can look unprofessional is because writers don't apply consistency in style throughout corporate literature or even throughout the same piece. This book is the ultimate foundation for consistency, clarity and professionalism. And from here you can add your own "house styles," guidelines that are unique to your profession or business. The return on investment on this book is tremendous.

Ron Marlar (a retired USAF officer, college professor, school teacher, living currently in Florida)

A primary advantage of The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law is the ease of finding style standards for journalistic writing. There are many writing style guides. Some are general in nature. Others are more specific for special kinds of writing, e.g., college reports, academic papers, scientific reports, and religious books and papers. No other rises to the level of ease as that of The Associated Press Stylebook for finding style standards. This is due to the A to Z listing format used in The Associated Press Stylebook.
Another advantage of this stylebook is indicated by its full title including Briefing on Media Law. Journalists and other writers may know how to write. They may have memorized well most of the style standards, but few seem to know media law unless well trained in journalism schools of top quality.
Other advantages include: the What's New, Bibliography, specific Sports and Business Guidelines and Style, Guide to Punctuation, and Proofreaders' Marks sections.
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law with its frequent updates is for serious, professional writers and others who want to know how to write and understand legal issues in writing to communicate.

Finally I can point to the authority and say,"Look, don't use the word HOPEFULLY to mean 'it is hoped, or let us hope.'" It is an adverb, not to be used to modify a sentence, only to modify a verb. Use it to mean 'in a hopeful manner.' Yes, the other use has been documented since the 30s, but that doesn't make it right.

Stepping off the soap box now. Thanks AP!

As of June 8, 2009, there is a newer edition of this book, so be sure to purchase the newest (2009 as of now) edition, especially for a changing field like journalistic style in writing.

By the way, the AP web site "Ask the Editor" (FAQs) is an excellent source of information on items not covered in the book (you can search directly on their page in your browser, for items you are wondering about), just go to apstylebook (dot) com and look at the right-hand column. You can click on View All Questions at the bottom of that column, then search on the resulting page.

They also have an online subscription version of the material in the book for $25/year that is updated continually and is fully searchable (though I personally still like to have the book in my hands and on my desk, if I was a full-time journalist or copy/proof editor I'd likely get the online version as well, just for the searching capability).

An excellent resource on many levels, "The Associated Press Stylebook" calls itself "The Bible of the Newspaper Industry," and you can take their word for it. While an essential reference for anyone who writes for publication (print or online), it's also sufficiently interesting to read for its own sake. We've even used the AP Stylebook for pickup games of Trivia!

There are actually ten parts to this book. The Stylebook, which is the largest, contains information far beyond grammar and punctuation. You can find here rules for proper usage ("backward," not "backwards"), capitalization (don't do it with "congress" unless it's part of a proper name), abbreviations ("MiG": the "i" is lowercase because it's the Russian word for "and"). I could go on, but you get the idea.

The nine other chapters include (2) Sports Guidelines and Style; (3) Business Guidelines and Style; (4) A Guide to Punctuation; (5) Briefing on Media Law; (6) Photo Captions (how to write them); (7) Graphics (how to file them); (8) Filing the Wire; (9) Filing Practices; and (10) Editing Marks.

I highly recommend Associated Press Stylebook 2007 (Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law)!

Sometimes looking up how to write something correctly can be a challenge within itself because your word you're using to describe something may be located under a different word in this AP dictionary.

Since the actual AP style doesn't change much, if at all, from year to year, you can get all the information without spending full price for the latest edition. This one worked great for my university classes.

Don't let the name fool you too much. Yes, this is the acclaimed AP style book, but you don't use AP style necessarily the same way as MLA or APA, which is often a confusing ordeal I have to sort out when I tutor.

Preferred spellings, abbreviations, a slice of grammar here and there- it's all there at your journalistic disposal.

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law
This book is (or should be) the daily "Bible" for all journalists. Sadly, we hear and read so much garbled English from journalists. For example, the ubiquitous "like" is being used inappropriately by New York Times. The AP Stylebook should be one of the well-thumbed reference books at the desk of every journalist and that of other writers as well.

I was just hoping to get something in good condition, but the book was like new and, although the shipper told me by e-mail that the book would arrive within 14 days, it actually arrived within 4 days. So, I was very happy.