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Associated Press style updates

Learn more about how to reference titles in AP style.

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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.