Where can I find an AP Style practice book?

November 1, 2011 1:19 PM

Need to bone up on my AP Style knowledge. Would love to find a book that has practice tests and quizzes about the 2011 AP Stylebook guidelines.

Having some trouble finding a book that isn't just the AP Stylebook. I'm hoping to find something like the practice books for the SAT/GREs that are informational and have quizzes to test your knowledge. Any ideas, hivemind? Thank you!

posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth to Writing & Language (2 answers total)

Not aware of a study guide. If I were you, I'd study the main areas that people are most likely to get wrong:
* State abbreviations - which states are not abbreviated, and how do you abbreviate the others?
* read up on the use of commas in the "brief guide to punctuation" and pay attention to apostrophe rules surrounding plurals and words that end in "s"
* also in the punctuation section, go to "hyphen" and read the "compound modifiers" sub-section
* address abbreviations (when to use N.E. vs Northeast, Street vs. St., which of the following are shortened and which aren't: Drive, Street, Boulevard, Road, Circle, Avenue).
* date conventions (When do you say Tuesday vs. Nov. 1 vs Nov. 1, 2011? When is it November vs. Nov.?)
* Internet terms: email (not e-mail); website (not web site or Web site); Web is capitalized on its own, as is Internet.
* Look up the City Hall entry and think about how to capitalize places
* How do you abbreviate the final part of a company's name (Co., Corp., Inc., etc.), and do you repeat that abbreviation upon subsequent reference?
* vs. or v. or versus?
* Read the entry on composition titles -- what is capitalized, italicized, put in quotes, etc.
* Review the rules for numerals. When is it "1" and when is it "one"? Do you ever write "one thousand" for any reason, or is it always "1,000"?

That should cover you for 95% of cases when you're likely to run into AP issues, unless you're writing/editing/encountering sports-related stuff, or working on a special-interest beat.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 2:06 PM on November 1, 2011

Take the AP style quiz
posted by haqspan at 7:33 AM on November 2, 2011