Fifteen Ways to Stay AP Stylish in Fall – iPhone, Quarterback and Veterans Day

The sun is setting faster, back-to-school advertising is at full blitzkrieg and football is back on the gridiron – all signs that the lazy days of summer are transitioning to the busy schedules of fall.

While many of us will head back to the office or classroom, fall is a great time for new beginnings, whether it’s for careers, courses or communications. Before the trees adorn with foliage, and as you slurp your umbrella drink one last time, you can make the Associated Press Stylebook your final beach read and soak up the latest trends in the written word.

Following are some AP-style entries that can keep you writing stylish this fall:

• academic titles: Capitalize and spell out formal titles such as chancellor, chairman, etc., when they precede names. Chairman Bob Roberts. Lowercase elsewhere, and lowercase modifiers such as department.
• Columbus Day: Oct. 12; the legal holiday observed the second Monday of October.
• Eastern Standard Time (EST), Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), daylight saving time: Use EST when observing standard time (winter); use EDT when observing daylight saving time (spring through fall). No s in saving and no hyphen in daylight saving time.
• Election Day, election night: The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
• fall/autumn: Lowercase names of seasons except if used as part of formal names: Winter Olympics.
• Labor Day: The first Monday in September.
• iPhone: Proper style for Apple Inc.’s smartphone that’s rumored for a release of its fifth-generation model this fall. Capitalize IPhone when starting sentences or headlines.
• Play off, playoff, playoffs: Use play off as a verb; playoff and playoffs as nouns and adjectives. We play off next week; The playoffs are next week.
• postseason, preseason: No hyphens.
• quarterback: Lowercase as it’s not a formal title. The New England Patriots star is quarterback Tom Brady.
• school: Capitalize when part of formal names: Central Street School.
• Sept. 11, 9/11: Acceptable in all references for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Use 2001 if needed for clarity.
• syllabus, syllabuses: Proper style for the outline or summary of topics distributed in education courses.
• Veterans Day: No apostrophe; the federal legal holiday observed Nov. 11.
• World Series: The Series is acceptable on second reference.

What are some of your favorite terms for fall? For further studying, and to also sharpen your news writing, read common mistakes of AP style, social media guidelines and 2011 AP-style updates.