Ever since
freshman year of college, I have always had a love-hate relationship with the
AP Stylebook. Even though I know it’s entire existence is to help so I can
follow the rules and better my writing I always feel like it is this big black
hole that sucks away happiness and eats dreams for breakfast. That all sounds
dramatic but its how it feels sometimes when I start learning all of these rules that I break and every rule can always be referenced back to the
stylebook.
Unknown rule #1:
Okay is not ok! I know it is so ridiculous but I have to just admit right now,
in professional use I will make a conscious effort to refrain from using “okay”
but in personal use it isn’t something I can let go of. Its not that I want to
appear uneducated but in informal messages such as texting and emails something
as silly as “no It’s ok” vs “no it’s okay” can change the entire way the
sentence is read. Can I just file that separately under urban language and keep
using it alongside lol?
Unknown rule #2:
This rule was less agitating and more interesting to me. The rule that states will
no longer be abbreviated. I found this rule interesting because of the reasoning
behind it. Because the world is changing so quickly and communication is instantaneous
it can no longer be assumed that our readers are local, or even American hence
the importance of spelling out states.
Editing mistake of the week: Sorry for the screenshot, for
some reason I could not get the photo to crop down to just the text. If you
look at the second paragraph it should say, "a Liberian man (who) flew to Dallas..."
I love your clever title!
ReplyDeleteI so agree with the word "ok" or is it "okay"?!
ReplyDelete