AP Stands for Absolutely Perfect!

Hello there!  It’s Kelly, LCI’s faithful Senior Account Executive.  Remember back to the days in elementary school when our English teachers would harp and harp and harp on grammar? And all we could think about is “why does this even matter!??!”  (Side note: the nuns used to make me stand at the back of the classroom all English period because I could never remember the correct definition of a preposition.  Or maybe I did, and I just preferred standing at the back of the room ;o) 

It’s been a few years now and I have seen a preposition or two come up a number of times since then, but I never thought the profession I selected would insist upon me knowing prepositional rules backwards and forwards!  And guess what?  It doesn’t stop there…..  Grammar rules are SO important that someone actually created a book that houses all of these rules, The Associated Press Stylebook, or more commonly referred to as “The Bible of the Newspaper Industry”.  I know….snore, right!?!

I was talking with an editor friend last week and he stated the following “When PR reps send me pitches via email, and I notice a grammar error anywhere in the first paragraph, I immediately delete the email.”  UGH, how rude!!  But that’s how serious press folks are these days!  No one wants to see an “I” where there should be a “Me” or a “ ‘re” where there should be a “ ‘r”.   So if you desire coverage for your clients, you’d better know your AP rules!!

I admit that I refer to my sturdy AP Stylebook ALL the time and I’ve come to find that it’s quite useful, if not completely awesome!!  For example, here is a common error made, and explained by the AP Stylebook:

I vs. Me

I is the first person singular subject pronoun, which means that it refers to the person performing the action of a verb.

You and I need to get ready.

Tom and I are going to the movies.

Me is an object pronoun, which means that it refers to the person that the action of a verb is being done to, or to which a preposition refers.

She needs to talk to Joe or me.

Between you and me, this is a bad idea.

Still don’t get it? Well, you should! SO READ YOUR AP STYLEBOOK! Seriously, go and do it NOW! Afterwards, check out these Buzzworthy activities:

California Academy of Sciences Nightlife Events: www.calacademy.org

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