Five New Updates to the 2015 Associated Press Stylebook

The 2015 Associated Press Stylebook is now available, filled with more than 500 pages of journalistic style, basic rules of grammar, punctuation and usage. Once originally published as a 60-page document for newswriting, the stylebook is now a comprehensive reference manual published also in Spanish and across digital platforms, including online and mobile.

To help master the book as quickly as mastering press-release writing, here are the five most important updates for communications professionals:

New index: Replacing the old Quick Reference Guide, a new 85-page index for terms with page listings has been incorporated to ease searching for entries.

Expanded social media entries: New terms include favorite, meme and Swarm, as the social diction continues becoming common speak.

Global warming: The term can now be used interchangeably with climate change (though climate change is more accurate scientifically to describe the effects of greenhouse gases on the environment, according to the stylebook).

More fashion and food: For style and cuisine lovers, both the fashion and food chapters have been updated with dozens of new terms, including writing bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich as BLT, avoiding the term preheat (and using heat instead) and spelling short-sleeved with a hyphen.

Simply sports: With more than 60 updates or revisions, the sports guide now packs listings such as baseball playoffs, basketball’s NCAA Tournament, horse racing, Olympic Games and more.

For real-time updates and answers to pressing grammar and style questions, follow @APStylebook. For more writing tips, check out ways to polish your prose.