AP Page: Home

Primarily used by journalists, AP Style is the standard for writing newspaper and magazine articles. Although publications may have different in-house rules for formatting and composing documents, AP Style forms the basis for each of them: concision, clarity, accuracy, and brevity are key to writing effective documents, according to the Purdue OWL.

Citing in AP Style is less involved than in other citation styles; typically, all that is needed is needed is the acknowledgement of the speaker before or after the quote (i.e. no date or page number required). A few examples below from the Writers Stack Exchange:

1. "Revenues are up 10,000 percent," said CEO John Smith.
2. According to SEC filings, company revenues are up 10,000 percent.

Furthermore, no bibliography is required for a document written in AP Style.

• Keep in mind that AP citation is used primarily in publications like newspapers and magazines; thus, you'll use this style in Comms or Journalism classes. For academic research writing, you will most likely use APA, MLA, or a number of other styles that require a bibliography.

•   Associated Press Stylebook, 2012 by Darrell Christian (Editor); Sally A. Jacobsen (Editor); David Minthorn (Editor)

    Call Number: R 808.06607 Ass 2012. 1st floor Reference collection.

    ISBN: 0917360567

    Publication Date: 2012-01-01

• Associated Press Style (Purdue Owl)

  The Purdue OWL page for AP style, with specifics.

Call the ASC front desk      630-844-5520

Text the front desk staff      630-447-9187