The New 2007 AP Stylebook – 'Female' is In, 'Pupil' is Out, and Pluto's Been Demoted

I received my new 2007 Associated Press Stylebook this week, which just became available (forget Vogue; in the U.S., this is the style bible for those of us in communications). While I’m not exactly running home to cozy up on the couch with it and a comfy cup of hot cocoa, it’s still interesting to see what’s in and what's out and this year’s style dos and don’ts. For instance, since time immemorial the guide directed writers to use the word “pupil” for children kindergarten through eighth grade and “student” for ninth graders on up. This year it dropped “pupil.” Ok, but what does that mean? Is my sixth-grader niece Daisy no longer a pupil? She’ll be sad to learn that. It says something about our era, too, that the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (which, since 1874, has been trying to ban martinis, mojitos, and margaritas, among other things) has gone the way of the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. That is, it’s been deleted.  The stylebook’s additions this year also speak to the world in which we live (and about which we write). New entries include: airstrike BlackBerry (both Bs uppercase) farmers market (note it’s a market of farmers, not a market belonging to farmers) female (yes, female, which is now the “preferred adjective, not woman”) GPS hip-hop intefedah Islamic holy days Katmandu merger Swift boat (AP adds this less than four years after it entered the vernacular during the last presidential election but waits decades to add “hip-hop”? What’s that about?) Among changes and updates, the “planets” entry was changed to include Pluto’s demotion to “dwarf planet”; what had been R.S.V.P.” is now an un-perioded RSVP for some unexplained reason; and the editors woke up one morning and decided to hyphenate “daylight-saving time” (though they’re adamant it’s not “daylight-savings time”).  Like any style compendium, the AP Stylebook reflects not only the times, but the tastes, attitudes and priorities of its editors and publisher. So while I’m cuckoo-crazy for it, none of us should be slaves to it. Good writing demands we follow a uniform set of rules. Great writing demands we know when to break them.

Note: Do you need to buy a new AP Stylebook every year? If you’re a reporter, maybe. But if you’re in PR and marketing, no, not really. There just aren‘t that many differences year to year. Save the $17.95. I buy a new one every three or four years and that seems to be a sufficient interval.

Comments

[Lisa Braithwaite]

I don't mind "female" as an adjective, but I can't stand it when people use it as a noun, instead of woman. Ick.

[Ragdoll]

Yay, more arbitrary and random rules set up to separate the language artists from the common people!

I would guess hip-hop's exclusion is the result of stuffy stylebook editors who can't actually believe people write about "that rap crap" seriously.

[jessica]

Note that it was *Woman's* Christian Temperance Union, not *Women's*, which is why it merited an entry. In the unlikely event that anyone ever writes about the WCTU again, they will most probably name it incorrectly ... and the AP Stylebook won't be able to set them straight. Oh well!

[AdamV]

Since when was "woman" an adjective anyway?
I can understand "female" being used as an adjective or more recently as a noun - replacing woman when the age discrimination implied by woman / girl and the class implication of lady are distracting. Using it indiscriminately as a pseudo-PC term makes no sense.