This just in.
The revisions to the 2002 Associated Press Stylebook have arrived! Aren’t you excited?
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is among the majority of American newspapers that follow the AP guidelines in their news writing. The book has more than 300 pages of preferred language usage, spellings, punctuation rules and more.
In addition, the T-D has its own Style Committee that issues in-house edicts on local exceptions or additions to the AP guidelines. For example, the T-D approves courtesy titles (Mr., Miss, Mrs., Ms.) for use in obituaries. Block numbers only, not specific addresses, are used for private homes in police items.
You think readers don’t pay attention to such things? Among complaints directed to the ombudsman this summer were objections to the omission of religious and military titles on second references in obituaries.
William E. Duke Jr., of Richmond, took note of T-D articles on the deaths of two Episcopal bishops. In each obituary, he said, they were correctly called “Rt. Rev.” on first reference, but afterward they became “Mr.” The proper title on second reference, he said, would have been “bishop.”
Susan E. Moore, of Richmond, called my attention to the obituary of a vice admiral. “Other than in the first sentence,” she wrote, he “was referred to as ‘Mr.’” The obituary on subsequent references should have used “Adm.” and should have shown more respect for a three-star admiral, she said.
I forwarded both of their grievances to the Style Committee but as yet have not heard of a ruling.
James S. Lamkin, of Richmond, phoned to ask why a patient would be taken, as the T-D regularly reports, to Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. “That’s eight words,” he said. “It can take up two lines of type!”
We’ve heard this complaint before. In 1998, columnist Ray McAllister poked fun at the awkward title after a directive was issued that news stories should include the VCU and MCV relationship.
For you younger readers, VCU was formed by the merger of Richmond Professional Institute and MCV in 1968, but by state law the MCV name survived even as the VCU name was born. The university, however, wanted to put emphasis on name recognition for VCU and pushed media to do the recognizing.
Reporters and copy editors, though, seem to have forgotten that the local addition to the Stylebook commanding use of “Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia Hospitals” included an out. The long version could be skipped, the Style Committee reported, in routine crime and accident reports.
Thus, read a committee clarification, “if MCV happens to be the hospital people are taken to, then MCV is all we need.”
If further support for the simplified reference is wanted, try this one: Imprinted on hospital bills is the order to “Make checks payable to MCV Hospitals.”
All this calls to mind the many name changes undergone at the university in Blacksburg. After struggling in news articles with “Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University” (sometimes irreverently called “Vippysue”), the style mavens in 1991 agreed to accept the name Virginia Tech in first references.
So what big changes are announced in the 2002 AP Stylebook? Copy editors here appear most taken with what happened to “teen-age” and “teen-ager.”
They’ve become “teenage” and “teenager.” No hyphens.
Likewise, hyphens have been dropped from “crossfire,” “freelance,” “offline” and “offseason.” That certainly should tighten copy and save space.
AP, usually stuffy about liberal interpretations, finally approved “lit” as a past tense form of “light,” nevermind that even my 1975 Webster’s accepted “lit.” (“Lighted” is OK, too.*)
“Sigh,” as L’il Abner often sighed, the language keeps changing its clothes to keep in style with custom. I am especially appalled by the increasing use of “kids” for “children,” and found this entry in the AP Stylebook:
“Kids – Use children unless you are talking about goats, or the use of kids as an informal synonym for children is appropriate in the context.”
That certainly clears up that.
Apprehensively, I checked on the most misused word in signage and comic strips, the illegal “alright” for “all right.” The current Webster’s New World Dictionary includes “alright” as a variation of “all right” but labels it “a disputed usage.”
AP doesn’t budge. The Stylebook entry reads, “all right (adv.) – Never alright.”
Well, all right!
*(OK, OK’d, OK’ing, OKs – Do not use okay.”)
* * *
So, what’s your favorite comic?
“Garfield,” the lasagna-loving cat that likes to hang out on the screen door, was the favorite of newspaper editors in a list published in Editor & Publisher magazine last month.
The top 15 syndicated strips were ranked based upon the number of subscribing newspapers. Each of the comics appeared in more than 1,000 papers.
The 15 leaders: (1) “Garfield,” (2) “Peanuts” reruns, (3) (tie) “For Better or For Worse,” “Dilbert” and “Blondie,” (6) “Hagar the Horrible,” (7) “Beetle Bailey,” (8) “The Family Circus,” (9) (tie) “Cathy” and “Doonesbury,” (11) (tie) “B.C.” and “The Wizard of Id,” (13) (tie) “Frank & Ernest” and “The Born Loser,” (15) (tie) “Dennis the Menace,” “Fox Trot,” “Hi & Lois” and “Zits.”
