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Her Campus AP Style & Writing Guide

First person vs Second vs Third

When is first person OK....

Find the mistake

Turn your passive voice into active

MOST listicles, open letters, "experiment" pieces, anytime you're writing from your own POV

Intro to AP Style

The cookies were made by Noura

Noura made the cookies

- She spent January 1st doing homework, watching television, and eating thirteen cookies

When is first person NOT okay?

The Porsche is driven by Anna

Anna drives the Porsche

The content of newspapers and other mass media is typically the result of many different writers and editors working together. AP style provides consistent guidelines for such publications in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation and language usage.

- The president of HerCampus VCU will spend 85% of the Fall making Prezis

The town was destroyed by a fire

News articles, reviews, any snapshots or segments (campus cuties, celeb etc.), listicles of facts rather than opinions, WHEN IN DOUBT DON'T USE FIRST PERSON.

The fire destroyed the town

The food will be made by Katie

Katie will make the food

- She stayed up until four am, just like most twenty-year-olds.

When is second person okay?

Common AP Style mistakes

Writing for Her Campus

Improving sentences

"We" is okay if you're writing to represent a group, HCVCU, college women, VCU, etc. It is NOT a replacement of first or third person. It is NOT okay for news articles, reviews, snapshots, listicles of fact. Again - when in doubt, use third person - always.

The Village is a lovely café located right near campus. They have a wide range of food, anything from burgers to pasta. They also serve breakfast all day.

Purdue AP Style

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/02/

Her Campus' tone is conversational, but you still need to be professional. Tone changes depending on type of article.

Some articles first person is okay- but with many article types, you must use third person.

Show don't tell - describe don't just state

Active voice > passive voice

Read articles. I repeat - read articles. Reading and writing is the only 100 percent way to sure fire improve your reading and writing

The Village Cafe's lively atmosphere and proximity to campus is complimented by its wide range of food - from burgers to pasta to an ALL DAY breakfast!

- Write out numbers under 10 ( 1 is written as one, 10 is written as 10)

- No oxford commas!! (Cookies, milk and ice cream not cookies, milk, and ice cream)

- Don’t capitalize titles. Unless they’re the President or Mayor, its lowercase. And while we’re at it – don’t capitalize seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) either.

- Pay attention to abbreviations. Months with five letters or few are written out (and all in a row – March, April, May, June, July) while longer ones are abbreviated like Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. Each state in the United States has a set abbreviation too – look it up!

-Watch your times. If an event takes place on the hour, there is no need for a colon followed by zeroes. Always include periods in a.m. and p.m.

Percent is written out... not %

Don't write the th, rd, etc. when referring to dates. Ex; Feb. 3, not February 3rd.

For ages, always use figures. If the age is used as an adjective or as a substitute for a noun, then it should be hyphenated. Don’t use apostrophes when describing an age range. Examples: A 21-year-old student

Websites to improve your writing skills

If you're looking for places to go for Halloween in Richmond, let me tell you the best ones.

Need Halloween plans? We've got you covered with our RVA Halloween checklist.

Improve this:

There are a lot of good things about being a student here at VCU, like the diversity. We also get a lot of tshirts and there is a lot to do in the city.

Story Structure

Hemingway

Passive Voice Checker

Word Counter

Thesaurus

Pro Writing Aid

Grammar Monster

Freelance Writing.com

Swipe Files for the Lazy Copywriter

Grammarly

http://www.toptensocialmedia.com/social-media-tools/ten-websites-to-improve-your-writing-skills/

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