Thursday, August 25, 2011

"DO YOU HAVE SOCIAL MEDIA STYLE? AP Style, That Is. Get It!"

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Social media seems to have taken over earth and, perhaps, a few other local planets. I recently wrote an article on Netiquetteproper rules, attitudes, and behaviors on the Internet, which will be published this fall.

But I forgot 1 thing: a title. No. I’m kidding. That’s a little blog humor. I forgot to mention the official style manual and resource for writing blogs and posts on social media. For those of you in academia, you are probably familiar with APA Publication Style, required for a bazillion journals. In the media, the style manual has 1 less letter: AP, which stands for Reuters. Oops! I mean Associated Press. It’s called the (Are you ready? Isn’t this exciting?) AP Stylebook. Here’s the citation in APA style:

Christian, D., Jacobsen, S., & Minthorn, D. (Eds.). (2011). 2011 AP stylebook. Boston, MA: Associated Press.

It’s often referred to as the journalist's "bible." It is a spiral-bound style manual for all writers, editors, students, and public relations specialists. The 2011 edition provides fundamental guidelines on spelling, grammar, punctuation and usage, with special sections on food, social media, business, sports and media law.

For those of you who write a lot on the Internet or for the New York Times, it’s an essential reference. Check it out. Between APA and AP, you should be well armed to write anything in proper format. Now if you could just think of something worthy of that impeccable style, you’d be set.

COPYRIGHT © 2011 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

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