Is it ok to use AP style?

[Southern_girl29]

One of my beta readers (thanks Jen aka Midwife) pointed out that I didn't spell out numbers over 10, and that's because I'm so used to the AP style because that's what I use at work. Should I buy a Chicago Manual of Style so I can learn it? Is it very different from AP? Or is it ok to use AP style in a manuscript?

[The_Grand_Duchess]

I could be off base and if so someone please clear me up. Do you mean APA style? I think MLA is the more commen one.

[JoNightshade]

MLA is the standard in fiction, I believe.

[scarletpeaches]

Eh? What? Different styles? I was always taught never to use numbers of any size in writing; one should always spell them out.

[Southern_girl29]

I believe there is a difference between APA and AP style. AP is Associated Press and is standard for most newspapers, which is why I'm so familar with it.

[ClaudiaGray]

It's okay to use AP style for a manuscript. Your publisher may have different thoughts about which to ultimately go with for publication (I am in the copyedit stage with mine, painstakingly shifting from AP to Chicago style), but at the submission stage, I think the main thing is to use a style, any style, consistently and correctly. Inconsistency would trip you up more than any particular style you used, I'd imagine.

[midwife]

LOL! I'm glad you asked this, cause it's been nagging at me, too. I've been flipping through a handful of novels and the numbers have been spelled out.

I know I was trained (read: beaten over the head) in nursing and grad school to use APA (American Psychological Association), which would say spell out less than 10 but use digits for 10 and greater but my major crit partner uses Chicago Manual of Style and we've had a few squabbles.

She's a librarian though and a squabble between a midwife and librarian is pretty tame. She's gotten me to start spelling out all numbers, though.

[JoNightshade]

scarletpeaches, maybe it's different across the Atlantic, but in the US we have several "schools of style" for various writing formats. Newspapers use a special format called AP style (Associated Press), while published nonfiction (like textbooks) use mostly Chicago style. MLA style is used in academia, for instance writing papers for college or academic journals. There are little differences between each style tailored to the particular format; ie, AP style tends to keep things short and terse, while MLA focuses on the importance of documentation, etc.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if fiction is MLA or Chicago. Hmmm.

[JoNightshade]

Is it weird that the fact that we actually have formal styles makes me feel good? I just get this secure "we're not total lunatics!" feeling.

[The_Grand_Duchess]

I believe there is a difference between APA and AP style. AP is Associated Press and is standard for most newspapers, which is why I'm so familar with it.

See, I did not know that! Thank you for setting me straight :)

I think MLA is the standard form for fiction though. I can't even think of anything Chicago Style is used for.

[Captain Morgan]

I believe MacDonald has mentioned getting ahold of Chicago Manual of Style, so I can only conclude you can't go wrong with it in fiction.

[sassandgroove]

neat discussion. I should check my writing to make sure I am consistent.

[moonslice]

AP style is also used widely in public relations writing and in many ad agencies for copy (though exceptions are made for creative reasons).
Keep in mind that many of the rules in AP are there to save space in a newspaper -- like writing figures for numbers 10 and above. So, there may not be a reason to follow this in a manuscript unless you want to. I agree that the most important thing is to be consistent.

I haven't used MLA or APA (psychology classes require this style) in a long time. I've never used Chicago, but I've seen several ads for editing jobs for publishers who want you to know Chicago.

Do you really use two spaces after periods? Really? I've been so trained to not do this through ad stuff (and before that through working at a newspaper) that I can't imagine going back to two spaces for manuscripts.

[Will Lavender]

When I received my MS from the copyeditor, she had at the top of the cover sheet the style manuals she'd consulted. She listed Chicago, which I assume is the preferred style at Random House.

Consistency is what you want, though. No matter what style you're writing in. When the book is published, they'll convert it to whatever style the house uses.

[JoNightshade]

Do you really use two spaces after periods? Really? I've been so trained to not do this through ad stuff (and before that through working at a newspaper) that I can't imagine going back to two spaces for manuscripts.

Oooh, I HATE two spaces!!! I refuse!!!

[Kristin Landon]

I've never heard of MLA style for fiction; I would have assumed that publishers either have a house style their copyeditors impose, or don't care what the author does as long as it's consistent.

Chicago is the underlying standard in many branches of publishing, including the ones I've been working in for years. It's a really, really handy book and good to have around. Sometimes you don't need the answer, but just an answer about capitalization, say, or whether a TV show title is italics or in quotes. Chicago's got all that, and you can't go wrong following it.

It's also easy to use—the index is excellent and the chapters are well organized, with clear outlines on the first page.

And you can almost always find the previous edition, cheap, at used book stores. I have to buy a new edition, every time one comes out, for my editing work, but if you're just using it for a reference book, the 13th or 14th is as good as the 15th.

[Dave.C.Robinson]

I learned to type on a manual typewriter, and every time I type a period I have to double-tap the space bar. It's a reflex. I also find single-space after a period is much harder to read on a monospaced font like Courier.

[Captain Morgan]

I use 2 space between sentences, and I never learned to type on a typewriter. When I took business courses, we had rooms full of Tandys & IBMs running Word Perfect in my day.

All my instructors went by the double space bar rule even still. In fact, if you forgot to double space here or there, you'd lose marks (yes they were that rigorous in checking!).

I know some people here say only typewriter people do that, but that makes me an oddity. I guess the simple fact is, I must have had a lot of BAD teachers who didn't know any better. They drilled it into us, that even today I still use 2 spaces without even thinking about it.

At least in WP you can search for DB spacing and remove it, but I"m not sure if MS Word can handle that, despite all the other useless bloated junk that comes with it.

By the way, I noticed it is easy to catch a plagerizer in essays. Suddenly the DB spaces is dropped in certain paragraphs. Do a search on the net, and you'll find that same paragraph.

One reason for this, is most web pages parse out DB space bars.

[sassandgroove]

I use two spaces. I thought you were supposed to.

[job]

Dunnoh about everybody, but Berkley/Penguin uses Chicago. I haven't come across MLA, but then, there's a lot of publishers out there.

Once you get acceptance on your ms, find out from your editor what the house style is and buy the book.
You don't want to have to rush out and buy something like a new CMoS because it costs the earth. Make sure you get the right edition though.

[Kristin Landon]

It's not likely that having the latest edition of Chicago is going to be essential in a novel, though, unless maybe it's some kind of legal procedural or about the government. The changes between editions are often about very nitpicky things such as handling references.

It fits that Penguin uses Chicago; that's what I instinctively use now, and the copyedit on my Ace book was really light. I've never asked, because I assumed the copyeditor would handle it, as I do when I'm the copyeditor.

If you use two spaces between sentences, your copyeditor or compositor will strip them out, I guarantee it. But it only takes a minute (Word is up to it). It's not going to make anyone decide not to buy your ms.

[Tish Davidson]

The people I've worked with want Chicago for book length fiction and nonfiction, AP for magazines, newspapers, PR writing,and AMA (American Medical Association) for medical manuscripts. I believe MLA is used mainly for academic papers and APA is the for psychology writing. Confusing, isn't it?

I just went to a seminar on the new, 10th edition, of the AMA style manual. It's amazing how passionate people can become over semicolons, and disagreements on the way to do certain references can cause a riot.

[The_Grand_Duchess]

I haven't double spaced after a period since I failed typing in seventh grade. You wanna know how I learned to type? In college using instant messenger. Thats right. That's how I learned.

Now I type like 70 words a minute. Thank you AIM.

[job]

It's not likely that having the latest edition of Chicago is going to be essential in a novel, though, unless maybe it's some kind of legal procedural or about the government. The changes between editions are often about very nitpicky things such as handling references.

As I was sending folks out to buy a used copy of Chic it was less a warning against the 14th as opposed to the 15th than the 12th as opposed to the 15th. (g)

I have grave and serious differences with Chicago over commas ...
They are wrong and I am right.

[JEMcGee]

This was awesome info - I am about to start the editing process and have never been great at consistency. So I just bought "The Chicago Manual of Style" edition 14 off Amazon for $7 and plan to figure out just how much I don't know.

*uses 2 spaces*

[Chumplet]

I learned to type on a typewriter in high school, then didn't type until I worked at a newspaper. In the production department I used a typesetting machine so it worked differently. Then we got the Macs.

I don't know when I stopped double spacing -- it just ended.

As for numbers, I was taught to spell it out (in manuscripts) unless using it to indicate an address, or something like The 47th Division of Whatever.

[Southern_girl29]

I'm checking my manuscript right now, and I used only one space. We only use one space at the newspaper, too, because when I first started working there, I was putting two spaces. My editor yelled at me about it, so I stopped doing it. It took a lot longer to stop with my fiction writing, but I have now.

I'm going to keep it as is because I am consistent all the way through (except for using OK, which midwife aka Jenn can tell you is something I never wrote the same way). I like the style, though, but I guess it's because it's what I'm used to.

[AnnieColleen]

At least in WP you can search for DB spacing and remove it, but I"m not sure if MS Word can handle that, despite all the other useless bloated junk that comes with it.

Yes, it can.

And, I learned to type with the double space in the computer era, with great teachers.

[Stijn Hommes]

Go for consistency, but make sure what to do when you use the number 1977 in your book. You REALLY don't want to spell that one out. Especially if you happen to aim at younger readers.

[Toxic_Waste]

One of the prizes I won in a recent contest was a line edit of my novel's first chapter. I noticed that most of the marks were in places where I had slipped back to AP style. I was a newspaper reporter for years, and it can be hard to break old habits.