The world experienced a barrage of changes over the last couple of years, and the Associated Press Stylebook has kept pace with three recent updates:
1) COVID-19 refers to the illness caused by the coronavirus and should be used in that context. Always capitalize all letters in COVID-19.
2) The term Black should be capitalized when used in a racial, ethnic, or cultural context. Many people who identify as Black share a sense of history, identity, and community and have a shared experience of being discriminated against because of skin color.
3) Anti-Semitism should now be written as antisemitism. This is in response to a decision by the Anti-Defamation League, among others, to change its spelling because the hyphenated-and-capitalized style suggested it could give credence to the idea that Jews are a separate race and also notes the racist motives behind calling Jews “Semites.”
Want more?
Join Connecticut PRSA virtually on Thursday, March 3, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., for a conversation featuring Katie Place, Ph.D, APR, associate professor at Quinnipiac University.
She will review AP Style techniques essential to the public relations profession. Attendees will learn the latest updates to the AP Style manual plus relevant ethical- and business-related writing tips.
Visit here for more details and to register.