Follow AP style when you complain about this column

There are two books that guide the way I live: The Bible and The Associated Press Stylebook.

I won't discuss the former here (and yes, capitalize the Bible as a title when you refer to the Scriptures in the Old and New Testament, according to the AP Stylebook).

I was reminded of the value I attribute to the AP Stylebook when I saw a tweet by someone demanding that the headstone on their grave be reviewed by someone who knows AP style. I realized how important it was to me (my birthday, in October, better have the month abbreviated).

First an explanation: The AP Stylebook is published annually as a guide for how newspapers (and other media) should use the language. It's pretty complex (my version, the 2013 edition, has 484 pages) and covers everything from which American cities require state names with them to the difference between an engine and a motor to the fact that Polaroid is capitalized to the definition of "heavy snow."

There are many style guides, such as those to help with college writing, medicine and law. But AP style is the best.

I left the Daily Republic as an everyday writer four years ago, but am still a writer and editor. And still insist that we follow the AP Stylebook at my workplace. Obsessively.

Which is why I'm irritated when I see people ignore AP style (even though those people may not know AP style exists. Ignorance is no excuse for breaking writing rules!).

For instance:

There is no comma between a person's last name and the abbreviation for junior or senior. In other words, the Hall of Fame outfielder is Ken Griffey Jr. (no comma). And, by the way, his last name is Griffey. Not Griffey Jr.

While including a date, you abbreviate all months with more than five letters. In a nice coincidence, those months are consecutive. The only months you spell out while using a date are March, April, May, June and July.

In a related note, you spell out the whole month if there's not date involved. It's "he was born in October," but "he was born Oct. 15, 1991." Got it?

I'm a violent opponent of the serial comma, but I've addressed that previously. I confess that proponents of the serial comma (most frequently when you use a comma before "and") have a point. So on this, I'm not an AP style Nazi (the German political party was founded in 1919 and abolished in 1945, according to the AP Stylebook).

A job title is only capitalized before a name. The correct style is Fairfield Mayor Harry Price or Harry Price, Fairfield's mayor. Got it? Even the president and a senator don't get their job title capitalized unless it immediately precedes their name.

There are numerous other issues, but I won't bore you with details (too late?).

By the way, my stance on AP style comes with an expiration date. In the years since I left daily newspaper work, the stylebook changed the rules for cities and states (spelling the full state name, rather than abbreviating it) and softening its stance on over/under (now you can write "it cost over $1 million," even though it historically has been "more than.").

I disagree with both, which I guess makes me kind of a hypocrite (no mention of hypocrite in the AP Stylebook, which ends its "H" section with "hyphen."

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.