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Last Seven Days

Question from Boston, Massachusetts, on April 24, 2025

Hi - When referring to someone who has a specific type of cancer, would you say, "Patients with colon cancer," or "Colon cancer patients" ? 

Answer

If in doubt, it never hurts to ask, especially if you are referring to a specific person. When talking about a group of people, I don’t see a huge detriment to either construction. 

For guidance, you could refer to the AP’s guidance on person-first language, which is nested in the entry for disabilities, and can be helpful in other cases where you are defining a person or people by a specific malady or characteristic. 

“Use care and precision, considering the impact of specific words and the terms used by the people you are writing about. When possible, ask people how they want to be described. Be mindful that the question of identity-first vs. person-first language is vital for many.”

 You can find more guidance that could be useful in the Stylebook’s Inclusive Storytelling chapter. 

Question from Chula Vista, California, on April 24, 2025

It pains me to write this question, but I am starting to receive text for editing and publication that has been written by AI. Does this content need to be attributed to the generative AI that developed it, like you would attribute a photo to a source? If so, does AP have guidelines for how to do this?

Answer

As AI evolves, so do best practices for crediting AI-generated content. AP recommends transparency in general. For stories like earnings reports that are generated by AI tools, we include an end-of-story tag: This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. 

Question from Tokyo, on April 24, 2025

In the body of an article, is it "the Vatican City" or just "Vatican City"?

Answer

Just Vatican City. 

Question on April 22, 2025

I am trying to standardize executive organizational titles and cannot determine when to use "vice president for" versus "vice president of." For example: vice president OF academic affairs or vice president FOR academic affairs. Are they interchangeable? 

Answer

If you are trying to standardize for your own organization, I would consult colleagues, then pick one and stick with it. For other groups, they may have one or the other as part of their official title, in which case you should use that. They may not be interchangeable, depending on the agency and field.

Question from Fullerton, California, on April 22, 2025

After grading a semester of papers and two magazines, I;ve noticed a recent disturbing trend of too many long (em) dashes randomly sprinkled to and fro. This seems to be untethered to age: University chancellors and high schoolers have the habit, often five or six times in a 500-word paper.

It happens enough in many submissions that the dashes lose their visual impact. On the other hand, parentheses and semicolons are nearly extinct. 

Does AP draw a line for using dashes within body text? Say,  once per story? This is — and I say this with all sincerity — driving me nuts.


Answer

AP does not have a limit on using long dashes. But we agree that many writers overuse them. Our guidance says: "But avoid overuse of dashes to set off phrases when commas would suffice. "

Semicolons also work well. Or you could just start a new sentence.

Question from Bethesda, Maryland, on April 21, 2025

For possessive surnames that end in "s," which is more acceptable in AP style?

Lewis' or Lewis's

Answer

AP style would be "Lewis' shoe." 

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