Associated Press Stylebook

If you are a Chicago Manual of Style user who is hoping to brush up on your AP style skills, just be warned this isn't really a style guide with rules and such like the CMoS. It's an alphabetical list of all of the terms you might use in stories/articles and how to style them for headlines. Useful, but not THAT useful.

This is a great informative piece of literature. It clarifies many uses of modern words and phrases you will see on social media and the like. It does seem like this jargon moves at a much higher rate than an annual volume can keep up with, so there will be quite a bit of newer terminology that you won’t see in here, but I can guarantee will be in the next edition. This volume also gives you guidelines for writing in the AP style, which is a set of punctual and flow guidelines used by almost every serious journalistic company in the nation. As a journalist in America, you HAVE to be familiar with the AP style if you want to see success. I really do enjoy reading the AP style books over the years. They contain a lot of information and seeing how articulate they are each year in improving their books is interesting and makes me proud to be a journalist.

All of this being said, AP’s bias toward the politically correct, leftist culture is pretty obvious. Not knocking this, but as a journalist, I like to pride myself on trying my genuine hardest to be as unbiased as possible in my work. Seeing blatant bias in one of the most influential journalistic works in the country is a little disheartening, to say the least. I’m not saying they have to go out and offend people with their style guides, but catering to the coattails of a political faction isn’t something we should do, either. I would give examples, but you will see this bias for yourself in the book. It’s not so bad as to make the guide insufferable, but it’s there. This is just my opinion and I still hold this volume in high regard. As a journalist, I also pride myself on not shutting out people or organizations I don’t agree with. I value open discussion much more than cancel culture, which is a stain on our society.

This really is a fantastic piece of information here and if you are looking to start writing professionally, this guide book is a must. You will likely enjoy reading up on all the terms and information they include in the pages, if you actually enjoy writing and want to learn and become better at your craft. I look forward to picking up each new edition of the AP stylebook, and I don’t see that changing in the future, either. 👍

I'm a technical editor/copyeditor/proofreader professionally, but I haven't trained specifically using the AP Stylebook before. I use an in-house style guide that is well written, and I decided to brush up my skills with the AP style guidelines as part of my professional development. I guess I was expecting something similar to the in-house book I have in terms of a resource, with clearly defined 'this is the rule', 'this is a preference', 'this is an example', etc., clear-cut information.

The physical book itself was perfectly fine. And, I suppose, the AP Stylebook does do the things I expected, kind of.

The internal layout and content was... surprisingly formatted in an aesthetically and difficult-to-utilize way. The book is laid out in a two columns per page list format, with narrow columns, which make the flow of text unwelcoming in some manner and actual information presented less useful than just Googling a question you might have. It basically reads like a choppy dictionary for most of the material.

There are entries like "summertime", which are literally just the word to indicate how to spell it (no definition or other information given), to "survivor, victim" which have multiple paragraphs basically stating 'be careful when using this, because context, and people may be offended'. For better or worse, there is a left-leaning, socially progressive bent to the information provided.

There are a few sections with more informative, educational stylistic material, i.e., Business, Science and Technology, Media Law, etc. The alphabetical index, which is practically a restatement of most of the book given that most of the book is already in an alphabetical listing, spans from page 523 to 619.

Four stars because there is style information there. The book itself was physically fine. Minus a star because I doubt I'll ever actually use or read through most of the information presented. A regular, well-respected dictionary and/or a bit of Googling would have been just as good, if not better, resource.

At least it'll look professional on my bookshelf.

So happy to have this 55th edition and one that will stand the test of time for two years. That's great and even after 2022, it will still be relevant, at least one more year.

It is important to have a solid reference source at your fingertips, and I was pleased to get this and go over it. Now it sits on my desk for instant reference when needed. Though individual operations and Editors have their own specifics having a good baseline is always helpful.

This stylebook is perfect for anyone from high school through specific careers where pinpoint, accurate wrwiting are required. Also great for term papers, reports, assignments. The AP Stylebook has been the go-to sourcebook for users from newbies to nerds. Can't go wrong.

I bought this for my daughter who will be graduating in Dec with her BA in Human Development with a minor in Gender Studies. This is a great resource and she loves it.

Has all the info.

For over $16, and labeled “brand new”, it should not have come with water damage. I would be returning this and demanding my money back if it wasn’t required for a class

It is the book