Summer AP Style Reminders for Pride Month, Comic-Con and More
We know journalists are busy, and it can be difficult to keep up with recent AP Stylebook changes. So we’ve done the work for you, rounding up a few of the recent significant — and just plain interesting — updates to the AP Stylebook.
Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom on Pexels.
Will you be covering news related to Pride Month in the coming weeks? What about the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™? To help, we’ve compiled a few timely AP style rules and reminders around these and other topics.
Some Miscellaneous Summer Terminology
- June bug is written as two words (and is also acceptable as june bug).
- AP recommends draft beer as opposed to draught beer.
- There’s no apostrophe in farmers market, which refers to the plural of farmers.
- It’s the National Park Service, not Parks plural.
- Does your office close early on Fridays during the summer? AP Style recommends formatting it as “summer Fridays,” with the quote marks and lowercase summer.
Pride Month
- LGBTQ+ (adj.) is acceptable in all references for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning, plus other sexual and gender minorities.
- The term queer is sometimes used as a synonym for LGBTQ+. However, because of its origins as a slur, queer is not universally accepted among LGBTQ+ people, and its use tends to be more prevalent among younger generations.
- Capitalize Pride when referring to events or organizations honoring LGBTQ+ communities and on subsequent references (“The Pride event starts at 10 a.m.”).
- Lowercase pride when referring to generic events or the general concept of LGBTQ+ pride (“He attended a gay pride parade.”).
- Pride Day is June 28, but is observed internationally on and in the days before the last Sunday in June.
Upcoming Sports Events
- FIFA World Cup: The FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ will take place across 12 venues in the U.S., from Miami to New York, Seattle and L.A. It will run from June 14 to July 13.
- Soccer is the preferred term in the U.S., but around the world, the sport is referred to as football.
- FIFA is acceptable on the first reference to the Federation Internationale de Football Association. But instead of spelling out the French acronym, refer to it as the international soccer governing body.
- Free kick and red card are written as two words, but goalkeeper, midfielder, sideline and offside are one word.
- Tour de France: The famed bicycle race kicks off July 5. This year’s route is 100% French, which hasn’t happened since 2020. The event will feature 184 riders representing 23 teams.
- Remember the rules for numerals if you’re writing about things like elevation gains, the number of regions visited or the number of stages in this year’s race (of which there are 21). Use figures when preceding a unit of measurement, like miles or kilometers. For time measurements (seconds, minutes, days, months, years, etc.), spell out one through nine and use figures for measurements above nine. Read AP’s full guidance on numerals.
Comic-Con
- The San Diego Comic Convention (Comic-Con) will be held July 24-27. While the flagship San Diego event uses the hyphen in Comic-Con, it may differ for smaller, local conventions. Use the hyphen if the event uses it (some don’t).
- Write cosplay as one word. It’s the activity or practice of dressing up as a character from a work of fiction.
- Blockbuster is also one word. Use a hyphen in binge-watch, but bingeable is one word.
Upcoming Holidays
- Father’s Day: Note the apostrophe placement! It’s celebrated on the third Sunday in June.
- Juneteenth: June 19 is a legal holiday in the United States in commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S.
- July Fourth: It can also be called Fourth of July or Independence Day. Also note that firework is one word.
A New Pope
- Capitalize it when used as a formal title, like Pope Leo XIV.
- Lowercase it in all other uses: The pope gave a blessing.
- Leo is OK on the second reference.
- In the Catholic Church, a conclave is the private meeting of cardinals to elect a pope. (Note: you should lowercase church when used in an institutional sense.)
- Holy See is the term used to describe the Vatican as a sovereign state. It is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican City. Vatican City is a standalone dateline city.
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Rocky Parker is the Manager of Audience and Journalist Engagement at Cision PR Newswire. She's been with the company since 2010 and has worked with journalists and bloggers as well as PR and comms professionals. Outside of work, she can be found trying a new recipe, binging a new show, or cuddling with her pitbull, Hudson.
