AP Composition Writing Style

What is the purpose of punctuation?

• Rules used to make writing complicated 
• To serve as a guideline to help the readers understand the tone, pauses, stops and even body language to indicate meaning
• There is none 
• To indicate when to stop, start and pauses in text

When do you use an ellipsis?

• Just when you feel like starting a quote anywhere    
• What’s an ellipsis anyways?
• At the end of a long quote 
• When indicating the deletion of one or more words in condensing quotes, texts, and documents  

Select the sentence free of errors in AP style for addresses, abbreviations, capitalization, numerals and punctuation and spelling in print copy

• The players voted 36 to 5 to change their team colors to red, white, and black.
• The players voted 36 to 5 to change their team colours to red, white, and black.
• The players voted 36- five to change their team colours to red, white, and black.
• The players voted 36-5 to change their team colors to red, white and black.

Select the sentence free of errors in AP style for addresses, abbreviations, capitalization, numerals and punctuation and spelling in print copy

• Jim Wilson, the advisor to the student newspaper, said, “The principal’s decision to censor the student newspaper violates the First Amendment.”
• Jim Wilson, the advisor to the student newspaper said: “The principals decision to censor the student newspaper violates the First amendment.”
• Jim Wilson, the advisor to the student newspaper said, “The principle’s decision to censure the student newspaper violates the 1^st amendment.”
• Jim Wilson the adviser to the student newspaper said: The principal’s decision to censure the student newspaper violates the 1^st amendment.”

Select the sentence that properly uses a comma correctly

• On June 28, 1974, Judge Hayes took her seat on the Supreme Court.
• On June 23,1974 Judge Harris took her seat on the Supreme Court.

When do you use a colon? (:) 

• To show ownership
• To introduce a list
• To indicate a change   
• To end a sentence

When is an appropriate time to use a hyphen? (-)

• To Avoid Ambiguity
• Compound Modifiers
• Prefixes and Suffixes
• All of the above  

Select the sentence free of errors in AP style for addresses, abbreviations, capitalization, numerals and punctuation and spelling in broadcast copy.

• The governor said, “We’re looking to a period of sustained economic growth for the state.”
• The governor said we’re looking to a period of sustained economic growth for the state.
• The Governor said “We’re looking to a period of sustained economic growth for the state.”

Select the sentence that uses a comma correctly

• We arrived in Tokyo, Japan, for the meeting of the 45th president of the United States.
• We arrived in Tokyo, Japan for the meeting of the 45th president of the United States.

Select the sentence that uses apostrophes correctly  

• The ladies book club will meet on Tuesday's.
• The ladies' book club will meet on Tuesdays.
• The ladies' book club will meet on Tuesday's.