During
today's AP Style workshop I realized I can no longer brush over the mistakes my
students make in their story scripts.
In order to demand quality writing I have to address the erroneous
grammar, punctuation and usage rules before they become public. The first step
starts with my own writing.
I’ll
admit throughout my writing career I would not fully subscribe to AP
Style. I did not have the
convenience of having it as an application on my phone or access online. To be
fully transparent, my lack of AP Style edits came out of pure laziness. I didn’t take the time to pick up the
AP Stylebook to check on rules such as hyphens and capitalization. I’ll
even admit that I am a multiple comma offender. I figured if no one caught my
mistakes maybe I followed the rule inherently.
Now
that I have shifted gears to training future journalists it’s imperative that I
model the correct journalistic behavior. Since our news stories will now be
published online through our school’s new SNO site we can no longer hide our sins
behind the camera. I will have to
create a culture where my news team can not only identify and understand AP
Style rules but they can apply it to their work and critique their peers. I
would also love for them to develop a keen eye for violations to help stop the
injustices across marquees, banners and flyers within our school and community.
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| Steve Elliot provides interactive ways to spot AP Style violations. |
Even within this blog post there may be several AP Style
mistakes. But, I can truly say that I’ve taken the first step toward progress
by admitting and recognizing my issues.
Now, if only AP could adhere to some of Dr. Solomon’s diversity precepts
and stop discriminating against Android users. Androids need AP Style love
too!
Candace Bagwell
Heritage High School
Frisco, Texas
I also worried about my style when I wrote my post on the AP style presentation this morning! The book is daunting. I know I will get all the way through it, but it is going to be helpful to the students to put together a smaller style guide, one similar to the one Steve put together for us. If you get the AP stylebook online, it gives you the ability to put together your own style guide. I am using it to create the Paw Print's mini-guide.
ReplyDeleteKristen Morey
Fremont High School
Ogden, Utah
It's like this session got our Spidey-senses (Should that be hyphenated?) twitching. Aren't we all scrutinizing our writing a bit more? This week has been very therapeutic (Did I spell that correctly?). (Can that punctuation possibly be correct?)
ReplyDeleteJerry L. Miller
Sparks High School
Sparks, Nevada (I can't believe, we have to spell-out state names.)
Right. Hyphens always trip me up.
DeleteI agree -- it's important to know AP Style and teach our students to adhere to it. But I bet it's not always laziness that keeps you from following through as much as you might like. If you're like me sometimes you prioritize another teaching point or let a student savor a different victory (yes! you transitioned between quotes!) instead of pummeling him/her for 10 rounds with the AP Stylebook. I often have to be satisfied with less than perfect copy if we're on our 10th draft and it's good enough and another draft is just going to be too discouraging.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a balancing act. It has taken my students several drafts before I allow them to complete their voice overs. By the time they have a grammatically correct and informative script the AP Style errors simply fall by the wayside. I will just have to address them at draft one to lighten the blow.
DeleteThere is a broadcast stylebook, by the way (http://www.amazon.com/Associated-Press-Broadcast-News-Handbook/dp/0071363882). But these days, with the walls down, broadcasters are writing and writers are broadcasting. So I recommend the good ol' AP Stylebook for all.
ReplyDeleteSteve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix
Thanks. I think I'm going to keep a copy of the broadcast one in my classroom for reference.
DeleteI agree it would not hurt for them to adhere to the standard AP Stylebook.