Writing and Using Captions and AP Style
Written by the stylings (Haha) of Savannah Summerlin and Levi Horton
Here are some examples of pictures you might have to caption in your yearbooking life. Please pick one and write an example caption that you would be willing to share with the class. Remember to use correct AP Style in your caption!
Captions
AP Style
The Second and Third Sentences...
Ages
The First Sentence...
What is this?
- When using an age as an adjective or as a noun than it should be hyphenated.
- When describing a name range, don't use an apostrophe.
For Example:
- The dance was strictly for 18-year-olds. You are obviously in your 20s.
- give background on the news event or describes why the photo is significant.
- should be written in the past tense.
- should not state the obvious.
- will usually describe what the photo shows, in the present tense, and state where and when the photo was made.
- will contain the 5 W's and an H (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How).
- will not state the obvious.
The AP Stylebook is the standard for grammar procedures in the world of journalism. Whenever in doubt, reference this book to make sure that your writing is grammatically correct.
Helpful Hints
The Way out
Dates, Months, Years and Days of the week
- Be creative and have fun with everything you write (If its punny then you have succeeded in life).
- ID, ID, ID!
- Don't state the obvious. If you can see it, then most other people can too.
- Be factual.
- Don't quote the same person for every caption, every deserves to have their time to shine!
- When writing dates don't use "st, nd, rd, or th" with the dates. Although you can abbreviate months.
- Commas aren't necessary if only a year and month are given, however commas should be used before the year if the date, month, and year are given.
For Example:
- The football game is Oct. 12.
- vs.
- The championship football game will be held Oct. 12, 2013.
The Fourth Sentence...
Names
- When mentioning someone for the first time, include both that person's first and last name.
- If you were to reference the person later on again, only use the last name.
Here are two examples:
- Former Missouri Senator, Levi Horton, was just elected to be the president. Horton is already looking for ways to improve the country.
- Expert author Savannah Summerlin has just announced her engagement to One Direction member Harry Styles. Summerlin and Styles plan to have a June wedding.
- should have a quote, which is required for the dominant photo on your spread, along with another photo on the spread.
- The quote should be from the person in the picture, and should always relate to the picture.
- ALWAYS USE CORRECT FORMAT FOR A QUOTE!!!