The Associated Press Guide to News Writing Chapter 12 & 13 Review

This week we will be finishing the last two chapters of Rene J. Cappon’s The Associated Press Guide to News Writing. We will be looking at chapter 12: Usage: Handling Those Hectoring Hangups and chapter 13: Bestiary: A Compendium for the Careful and the Crotchety.

In chapter 12, Cappon talks about sentence structure. In the chapter, Cappon talks about when to place certain words in sentences like but and and. Cappon explains that these words have different context in a sentence depending on the topic of the sentence. Cappon also explains when to use dashes and commas. Cappon goes through other types of words in sentences and how to use them properly like et cetera, the proper use of lay vs lie, handling numbers and using the word that.

In chapter 13, Cappon makes a short dictionary of words to help the reader understand how to use these words and place them in sentences. Cappon also goes into the meaning of these words to help the reader further understand when to use them.

These two chapters mark the end of Cappon’s 13-chapter guidebook. The final chapters play off each other in the importance of when to use certain words and how to structure good sentences as a writer. Overall, these chapters cap out a good end for Cappon’s guidebook as Cappon helps guide the readers on learning to make effective word choices.

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