Nov 21, 2011 admin
‘Tis the season for writing in style.
The holiday season kicks off this week—time for festivities, family, shopping, gift wrapping, greeting cards and inclement weather—and with it comes plenty of opportunities to communicate in Associated Press fashion.
Following are some holiday-related terms from the AP Stylebook to keep your writing as polished and bright as Rudolph’s red nose:
- Black Friday. Capitalize with no quotations for the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza.
- blizzard. Wind speeds of 35 mph or more and considerable falling and/or blowing snow with visibility near zero.
- Christmas, Christmas Day. Never abbreviate Christmas to Xmas or any other form.
- Hanukkah. Capitalize holidays.
- hangover. Lowercase and one word.
- Kwanzaa. A seven-day celebration, based on African festivals, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. The name originates from Swahili for “first fruits.”
- never-ending. Lowercase and one word, even when used to describe endless food, drinks and bills.
- New Year’s, New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve. But: What will the new year bring?
- profanities. Do not use unless part of direct quotation, even if you’re frustrated when stringing the lights.
- Santa Claus. No e in clause like the 1994 Disney Tim Allen movie.
- ski, skis, skier, skied, skiing. Also ski jump, ski jumping, ski racing.
- snowdrift, snowfall, snowman, snowstorm. Lowercase and one word.
- Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day. The fourth Thursday in November.
- winter. Lowercase seasons in all references.
- well-wishers. Lowercase and hyphenate.
When snowed in and wanting to catch up on all things AP, be sure to review the stylebook’s common mistakes, social media updates, grammatical staples and retweet guidelines. Happy holidays!
