Missouri State University follows the Associated Press Stylebook for guidance on writing for print or electronic publication. AP Style recently added several new entries and updated some sections.

Missouri State has a limited membership to the online AP Stylebook. More information on each of these entries is available in the online guide. If you create content for the university, contact Andrea Mostyn to request access.

A local style guide with exceptions and entries specific to the university is available on the Brand website.

Updates and additions

percent

Use the % sign when paired with a numeral, with no space, in most: Average hourly pay rose 3.1% from a year ago. For amounts less than 1%, precede the decimal with a zero: The cost of living rose 0.6%

In casual uses, use words rather than figures and numbers: She said he has a zero percent chance of winning.

Constructions with the % sign take a singular verb when standing alone or when a singular word follows an of construction: The teacher said 60% was a failing grade. He said 50% of the membership was there.

It takes a plural verb when a plural word follows an of construction: He said 50% of the members were there.

Use decimals, not fractions, in percentages: Her mortgage rate is 4.5%.

For a range, 12% to 15%, 12%-15% and between 12% and 15% are all acceptable.

data

The word typically takes singular verbs and pronouns when writing for general audiences and in data journalism contexts: The data is sound. In scientific and academic writing, plural verbs and pronouns are preferred.

asexual

Describes people who don’t experience sexual attraction, though they may feel other types of attraction, such as romantic or aesthetic. Not synonymous with and does not assume celibacy.

bisexual

Describes people attracted to more than one gender. Some people prefer pansexual, which describes people attracted to others regardless of their gender.

Missouri State University follows the Associated Press Stylebook for guidance on writing for print or electronic publication. AP Style recently added several new entries and updated some sections.

Missouri State has a limited membership to the online AP Stylebook. More information on each of these entries is available in the online guide. If you create content for the university, contact Andrea Mostyn to request access.

A local style guide with exceptions and entries specific to the university is available on the Brand website.

Updates and additions

hyphen (-)

Use hyphens to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea.

If the number of hyphens can confuse readers, rephrase: It’s a guide about how to use hyphens wisely, not it’s a how-to-use-hyphens-wisely guide.

Use a hyphen in modifiers of three or more words: a know-it-all attitude, black-and-white photography.

No hyphen is needed to link a two-word phrase that includes the adverb very and all adverbs ending in -ly: a very good time, an easily remembered rule.

Many phrases that are hyphenated before a noun are not hyphenated when they are after a noun: She is a well-known judge. She works full time.

Do not use a hyphen to designate dual heritage: African American, Italian American, Mexican American.

pre- or re-

Do not hyphenate double-e combinations with pre- or re-. Examples: preeclampsia,  preeminent, preempt, preestablished, preexisting, reelect, reemerge, reemphasize, reemploy and reenact.

grade, grader

No hyphen in most cases: a fourth grade student, first grader, she is in the fifth grade. Hyphenate if needed to avoid confusion, such when combined with another number: He was the sixth fourth-grade student to win the prize; she is the 10th third-grader to join.

quasi possessives

Follow the rules above in composing the possessive form of words that occur in such phrases as a day’s pay, two weeks’ vacation, three months’ work. The apostrophe is used with a measurement followed by a noun (a quantity of whatever the noun is). The examples could be rephrased as a day of pay, two weeks of vacation, three months of work.

No apostrophe when the quantity precedes an adjective: six months pregnant, three weeks overdue, 11 years old.

Missouri State University follows the Associated Press Stylebook for guidance on writing for print or electronic publication. AP Style recently added several new entries and updated some sections.

Missouri State has a limited membership to the online AP Stylebook. More information on each of these entries is available in the online guide. If you create content for the university, contact Andrea Mostyn to request access.

A local style guide with exceptions and entries specific to the university is available on the Brand website.

Updates and additions

Composition titles

Apply these guidelines to the titles of books, movies, plays, poems, albums, songs, operas, radio and television programs, lectures, speeches and works of art:

• Capitalize all words in a title except articles (a, an, the); prepositions of three or fewer letters (for, of, on, up, etc.); and conjunctions of three or fewer letters (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet, etc.) unless any of those start or end the title.
• Capitalize prepositions of four or more letters (above, after, down, inside, over, with, etc.) and conjunctions of four or more letters (because, while, since, though, etc.)
• Capitalize to in infinitives: “What I Want To Be When I Grow Up.”
• Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bible, the Quran and other holy books, and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material
• Do not use quotation marks around software titles; apps; or around names of video, online or analog versions of games.
• Translate a foreign title into English unless a work is generally known by its foreign name. An exception to this is reviews of musical performances. In those instances, generally refer to the work in the language it was sung in.
  • Examples: “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “Gone With the Wind,” the “Today” show, the “CBS Evening News,” “Star Wars.”
  • Reference works: Encyclopaedia Britannica; Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second Edition.
  • Foreign works: Rousseau’s “War,” not Rousseau’s “La Guerre.” Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” if sung in English but “Le Nozze di Figaro” if sung in Italian.

• For other classical music titles, use quotation marks around the composition’s nicknames but not compositions identified by its sequence: Dvorak’s “New World Symphony.” Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9.