Spring-cleaning suggestions for AP
By Doug Fisher
It's spring-cleaning time at the Associated Press as the venerable
wire service prepares its yearly update of the stylebook that serves
as a standard for much of journalism.
It's also time for the annual list of entries that editor Norm
Goldstein and crew should consider changing or jettisoning. Handy
tool that it is, the stylebook has become too big and complicated.
In this Internet-paced world, some parts have run the risk being
outdated. The 2006 suggestions:
Abbreviations in quotes:
It's time to write more like people
speak. They don't say No.1; they say "number one." Allow
it that way in a quote. And spell out all the months in quotes when
used with exact dates. For instance, "He was born January 18th," not "He
was born Jan. 18"; I can't think of the last time someone said "Jan." The
AP used to spell out titles like Governor or Senator in quotations,
but recently switched to all abbreviations. But if we spell out
most things in quotes, leaving abbreviations to a minimum, our readers
won't wonder why we write in tongues. (Note: The stylebook is confusing
because while the spell-out rule was deleted from "abbreviations," it
was not from the "governor" and "legislative titles" entries.
Stylebook editor Norm Goldstein says it was an oversight.)
Another:
The AP makes a useful distinction between
another (comparing like things or amounts) and additional. However,
most of the rest of the world, including most AP member newspapers,
stopped caring long ago. Time to let this one fade into the sunset.
Flier vs. flyer:
AP uses flier for both handbill and aviator.
More often, I see people using flyer for the handbill. They're telling
us they don't equate handbill and aviator and that the juxtaposition
doesn't make sense to them. Merriam-Webster, admittedly the most
permissive of the dictionaries, already makes the distinction. The
AP reserves "flyer" for the proper name of some trains
and buses. But for many in our audience, those storied trains and
buses are not just a distant memory – they are no memory at
all. Time to let that one go.
None:
While the traditionalists debate whether none comes
from a contraction of ne an, Old English for "not one," or
whether an inflexion allowed for "not any," the rest of
the world has pretty well settled this: not any in most cases. The
AP will probably cling to "not one" for a few more years
until usage becomes so overwhelming it can't be ignored. The New
York Times already has gone over to what some would see as the dark
side. To those who argue that journalism must hold fast, just hum
that line from the old Jim Croce song: "You don't spit into
the wind." Despite our penchant as journalists for not following
that, sometimes it's good advice.
Numbers:
Simplify, simplify, simplify. This has to be the
most convoluted part of the stylebook, made more complicated by
the recent ill-advised change to use different styles for ages of
inanimate and animate objects. Simplify as much as possible to spell
out everything less than 10 (even with millions and percents). It
seems to work for the Wall Street Journal. And skip the need to
repeat "percent" in a range: 5 to 6 percent is just as
understandable as 5 percent to 6 percent.
Over vs. more than:
This debate of using over for spatial
relationships and more than for amounts has kept editors and language
columnists in clover for years. But when the assistant managing
editor in charge of the desks at the Baltimore Sun and key editors
at other papers say this is foolish, let's take notice. Besides,
the public's been ignoring us on this for years. As John McIntyre,
AME of the Sun, put it in his Web log, this is one of those "distinctions
that aren’t worth making."
Staunch, stanch:
My inner prescriptivist cringes to say
this, but it's worth reconsidering the AP's distinction that stanch
is the verb. Even the dictionary that AP uses, Webster's New World
College, favors staunch.
Under way:
Another case where the public and, increasingly,
journalists are outrunning the stylebook. Forget the distinction
between an under way plan and an underway ship. Make it one word
in all uses.
Web site:
This has to be on the list just because it bears
monitoring every year in the Internet society. At some point, one
word will become the norm. I fear that if we stick to the two-word,
capitalized form, it eventually will turn into a shibboleth more
than wise usage, just like the old joke about "adviser" (Want
to find the journalists in a room? Line folks up and ask them to
spell adviser.).
Work force:
It's preferred as one word in Webster's College.
Take 10 people and ask them to spell it, and I guarantee eight will
use one word. It's another case of going with the flow.
The AP already has released two changes for this year. The Asian
country is now Myanmar, not Burma, and it has redone its entry on "gay" to
the following: Used to describe men and women attracted to the
same sex, though lesbian is the more common term for women.
Preferred over homosexual except in clinical contexts or references
to sexual activity. Include sexual orientation only when
it is pertinent to a story, and avoid references to "sexual preference" or
to a gay or alternative "lifestyle."
Check out the CSJ blog at http://commonsensej.blogspot.com for
more as they are released.
