2020 AP Stylebook Updates

Every year, the editors of the Associated Press announce changes to the AP Stylebook at the annual meeting for ACES: The Society for Editing. Sadly, the conference didn’t happen this year, but they still held a virtual event, and I was thrilled that the AP presentation was still part of that. I attended the presentation by Paula Froke, the AP Stylebook editor, and Colleen Newvine, the AP Stylebook product manager. I live-tweeted the presentation, and I’ll summarize the main points for you today.

And in case you’re wondering, AP style for “live-tweeted” calls for a hyphen. I had to look that one up.

It was a bit of a quiet year for updates. There were no shockers like we had in some previous years, like when they said it’s now OK to use “more than” to mean “over,” or to write “email” without a hyphen, or to lowercase the word “internet.” 

The print edition of the AP Stylebook will now be updated every two years

Probably the biggest news this year is that they are going to stop producing a new edition of the print book every year. They’ll now print a new version every two years. It makes sense because more and more people are using the online version of the style guide. I usually get both, but I do use the online version much more often than I reach for my print book.

No numerals update this year

The other big piece of news, at least for me, was something that didn’t happen. The editors had been saying they were going to do a complete overhaul of the numerals section of the stylebook in this release, but they didn’t. They said it ended up taking more time than they expected, but they do still plan to do it in the future.

‘Pled’ is now OK

As far as style changes go, the change that will probably affect the most writers is that it is now OK to use “pled” as the past tense of the verb “to plead,” as in “Squiggly pled guilty.”

Paula said they had received a lot of feedback from writers who wanted to use “pled,” so in her words, they took away the “schoolmarmish admonition” not to use “pled.” They had previously called it “colloquial,” but you can now use it if you want to. (I will note, though, that Garner’s Modern English Usage and the Chicago Manual of Style still do recommend “pleaded” over “pled.” As in “Squiggly pleaded guilty.” It’s what I’ll continue to use, but you are now not violating AP style if you choose to use “pled.”)

‘Preheat’ is now OK

The other big change probably won’t...

Keep reading on Quick and Dirty Tips