Some AP Tips

Quotations: When using direct quotation, periods and commas are always placed INSIDE the closing quotation marks. Question marks can go inside the end quotation marks or outside, depending upon the example: "What?" she asked him.
Colons and semi-colons go outside the end quotation marks.

Numbers

• In general -- but there are many exceptions -- spell out numbers zero through nine, use numerals for 10 and above. Use figures for sports scores.

• Percentages are always expressed as numeral followed by the word "percent." Example:The unemployment rate has risen by 12 percent.

Time

• Use figures, except for noon and midnight ; use colon to separate hours from minutes (4 p.m., 4:15 p.m.) Five o'clock is acceptable but time listings with a.m. or p.m. are preferred.

Dates

• Do not use -st, -nd, -rd or -th with the numbers. It's Oct. 1 through Oct. 15 -- not Oct. 1st through Oct. 15th.

• Spell out months if they stand alone. Abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. when used with a specific date. My birthday is in the middle of September. My niece's birthday is Sept. 2. If you are just saying a month and a year, don't put a comma between them: October 2014.

Titles

• Use quotation marks -- not underlining or italics -- for books, songs, television shows, computer games, oems, lectures, speeches and works of art. Leave magazines, newspapers, the Bible and reference catalogues as-is.

Abbreviations

•  United States is spelled out when used as a noun but often abbreviated when used as an adjective" The United States is a country. I travel with my U.S. documents.
• Spell out the official name of something the first time you mention it; use the abbreviation after that. It's University of Massachusetts the first time you mention it and UMass after that.

Miscellaneous

• Miles - Use figures for ALL distances. (This was a 2013 AP style change). "My flight covered 1,113 miles."  "The airport runway is 5 miles long."

• Only use one space after a period, in between sentences. (In the days of typewriters, we used two.)

A good example of a profile

There's a good profile by reporter Michael Jonas in this month's Commonwealth Magazine of UMass alumnus and longtime state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, who represents Hampshire and Franklin counties in the Massachusetts Senate. He is poised to become the Senate president, soon, a rare position for a western Massachusetts senator.

Here's how it begins:

"IF LIFE HAD taken a different turn, Stan Rosenberg might be an Orthodox Jewish rabbi today. That was his ambition while studying for his bar mitzvah in the early 1960s at Temple Israel in Malden. Had he followed that path, his days would be filled leading prayer services, wrestling with complicated questions posed by religious texts, and helping people with seemingly intractable dilemmas in the manner rabbis have done for generations. 

"When he didn’t get accepted to Yeshiva University in New York, Rosenberg struck out instead for Amherst, where he enrolled at the University of Massachusetts and has lived ever since. He found his way into politics, and has spent nearly his entire adult life in that world. Now, after 28 years in the state Legislature, where he has earned a reputation as one of its sharpest policy minds and a go-to guy for handling politically thorny assignments, Rosenberg is poised to take the reins in January as the new president of the state Senate."