Take the AP Style Quiz

1 What’s the correct style for a state when it’s used in a dateline or in conjunction with a city?
Alaska: AK, Alak., Alaska
Delaware: DE, Del., Dela.
Pennsylvania: Penn., Pa., PA
Texas: Texas, Tex., Txs.
Wisconsin: Wisc., WI, Wis.
New Jersey: N.J., NJ, Jersey
California: Cali., Calif., CA
2 More than/Over:
The book has more than/over 1,500 style mistakes.
3 Temblor/Tremblor:
The earthquake had a magnitude of 5.6 and rattled homes across the region. Geologists blamed the temblor/tremblor on a long-dormant fault line.
4 Numbers:
a) Eighty/80 books were donated.
b) Officials said there were six/6 robberies overnight.
c) The hurricane was the eleventh/11th storm of the season.
5 Political Affiliations:
Michele Bachmann has support of the Tea Party/tea party. But the Minnesota Republican/republican faces a heated battle from GOP/Grand Old Party rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
6 Wine:
Like all good writers, she relaxed after a long day at the computer by enjoying an oaky Chardonnay/chardonnay or a nice, full-bodied Bordeaux/bordeaux.
7 He ran to the local Wal-Mart/Walmart to pick up some groceries.
8 Abbreviations:
a) Senator/Sen. Debbie Stabenow
b) Rev./Reverend/Pastor Al Sharpton
9 Tech Things:
a) She couldn’t stop hitting refresh on the website/Web site.
b) He hastily sent the e-mail/email without proofreading.
c) Stewart issued an edict, saying no one was allowed to use their smartphones/Smart Phones/ SmartPhones during board meetings.
d) As Internet/internet dates go, this one was going down in flames.
For quiz answers, click here. (No cheating!)
*Spoiler alert*
I’ve got to say it drives me crazy that the AP style still requires you to capitalize Internet; it just feels old fashioned. In general AP style is my fav3 (I did fairly well on the quiz—though the wine question def. tripped me up).
I feel the same way about those instances where I have to put a caps on Web. Thank goodness language and style evolve!
Oh wow, there are a lot of these I didn’t know. Glad I picked the AP book 🙂
When they changed e-mail to email, my fingers basically had a seizure trying to unlearn a decade of muscle memory. Still drives me nuts.
I ❤ my AP style book. 🙂 It gets referred to often.
@twitter-15949299:disqus My finger-seizure came when I learned that you only put one space after a period. My whole academic career I'd been drilled to put two spaces! It was a life-changer.
i did gr8 !!!!!
I thought it was The Rev. Al Sharpton. Did AP change the style so you no longer have to write “the” before Rev.?