Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
I recall a particularly pompous area school administrator. He loved to tell us how educated he was, to the point he sent one of his published research papers to us instead of returning a phone call. He never understood, nor tried to understand, why we didn’t publish it.
I ran into him at a school event. After he began the conversation with an insufferable remark, he asked why our stories didn’t refer to him as Dr. So-and-so.
“Associated Press style dictates we only use the term when referring to people who practice medicine,” I said. “It eliminates confusion for the reader.”
He was not satisfied. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I have to take more credit hours to get my degree than a medical doctor does to get his.”
He’d already announced his resignation at the end of the school year, so no need to curry favor. I responded, “That’s great, but if I get in a car crash on the way home, my broken leg won’t care you took an extra (expletive) English class.”
Associated Press style is one of those most important things ever for the handful of people in that field and unheard of for anybody outside of it. To the latter, it’s basically a guide on how to refer to things properly. Officeholder is one word. Popsicle, Dumpster and Jacuzzi are trademarked names, so use frozen treat, trash bin and whirlpool spa instead. A 2-inch thick stylebook comes out every year because nobody could remember everything and it’s easier to just look up.
Why do we do it? Because the AP says so, but they’re more strenuous suggestions than they are rules. We don’t get a fine if we forget a rule or establish our own (if it’s closer than Lubbock or Amarillo, we don’t put Texas in the byline).
I thought of AP style, and my unfriendly conversation, this week because there was a somewhat important relaxing of percents and percentages.
The previous rule: Spell out “percent” in all cases.
This week, that’s one of 200 new or modified entries. “Use the % sign, when paired with a numeral, with no space, in most cases: Average hourly pay rose 3.1% from a year ago; her mortage rate is 4.75%; about 60% of Americans agreed; he won 56.2% of the vote. ... For amounts less than 1%, precede the decimal with a zero ... In casual uses, use words rather than figures and numbers: She said he has a zero percent chance of winning.”
Hilarously, any AP style change becomes heated conversation among reporter friends. Many of them say they’re not using the symbol. They acted the same way when the word “over” was acceptable for both numerical amounts and spatial relationships (it was only the latter until 2014). They acted the same way when backyard got one spelling (it used to be backyard as a modifier and back yard if it was the actual land).
I’m perplexed when they refuse change. “I do Thing A, and I’m not going to do Thing B because the AP says so ... even though the only reason I do Thing A is the AP said so.” Things change, guys.
That doesn’t mean we’ll be perfect. You’re going to still catch percent instead of % in stories, because we’re going to forget. Just assume we caught a more important error instead.
You know, like calling the wrong person Dr.
Kevin Wilson is editor of The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at: