Guide
AP style in unwrite
A full account of what changes when you turn on AP style, where AP and unwrite’s rules agree, and the one place unwrite holds the line. Outside the quoted AP examples, every word here follows those same rules: no em dashes, no banned language.
AP style is the newsroom standard behind most journalism, press releases, and corporate communications. Turning it on aligns the mechanics editors expect: numbers, commas, dates, titles, and abbreviations. The house rules still govern voice and the zero-em-dash promise.
When AP style is on, each rule does one of these things:
- Changes to match APyour draft adopts the AP convention.
- unwrite keeps its ruleunwrite does not change this, even under AP. Only the em dash falls here.
- Your setting decidesyour choice in Settings, under Writing defaults, determines the outcome.
- Unaffected by APAP has no opinion here; nothing changes either way.
The one real conflict: em dashes›
This is the only place AP and unwrite genuinely disagree, and it is worth understanding before you choose.
AP: The em dash is standard AP punctuation, set with a space on each side, used for emphasis, abrupt breaks, and series.
unwrite keeps its ruleunwrite: Never uses the em dash, in any mode. Where AP would reach for one, unwrite uses a comma, colon, semicolon, parentheses, or restructures the sentence.
AP: The plan — ambitious as it was — failed. unwrite: The plan, ambitious as it was, failed.
AP: Double hyphens sometimes stand in for an em dash in plain-text systems.
unwrite keeps its ruleunwrite: Double hyphens are banned everywhere, including page ranges and plain-text contexts.
Numbers and figures›
AP's number rules are the most visible marker of on-house vs off-house copy. unwrite adopts them under AP style.
AP: Spell out whole numbers below 10; use numerals for 10 and above.
Your setting decidesunwrite: Follows AP on the default numbers setting (spell out one to nine). If you chose numerals-for-everything in Settings, your setting wins, as with percent.
She wrote three drafts and sent 12 emails.
AP: Use numerals for money, dimensions, and percentages, and for the ages of people and animals, even below 10. Ages of things, like a company or a law, follow the spell-below-10 rule.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
a 5-year-old child, a five-year-old company, $4 million
AP: Spell out a number that begins a sentence (except a year).
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
Twenty editors reviewed it. 2024 was the turning point.
Percent and symbols›
AP changed its percent rule in 2019. This one interacts with your typography setting.
AP: Use the % symbol with a numeral (50%), no space.
Your setting decidesunwrite: Turning AP on switches your percent style to the % symbol automatically. You can switch it back in Settings, under Writing defaults, and your choice wins over AP's default.
AP: 50%. Your toggle decides between 50% and 50 percent.
Commas and spacing›
AP: No serial (Oxford) comma in a simple series.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP, keeping the comma only where dropping it would create real ambiguity.
red, white and blue
AP: A single space after a period.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP (and the house default).
Dates and times›
AP: Abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. with a specific date; spell out March through July; spell out any month standing alone or with a year only.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
Jan. 5, 2024; February 2024; last March
AP: Use figures with a.m. and p.m.; use noon and midnight, not 12 p.m. No th, st, or nd on dates.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
9 a.m., not 9:00 AM; June 5, not June 5th
AP: Use the day of the week without 'on' for time elements.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
She shipped it Monday, not shipped it on Monday.
Titles and names›
AP: Capitalize a formal title directly before a name; lowercase it standing alone or after the name.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
President Lin; Lin, the president; the chief executive
AP: Abbreviate certain titles before a full name: Gov., Sen., Rep., Dr., the Rev.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
Gov. Maria Reyes; Dr. Alan Poe
AP: Drop courtesy titles (Mr., Ms., Mrs.) in most contexts; use last name alone on second reference.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
Abbreviations and acronyms›
AP: No periods in most acronyms; spell out an unfamiliar one on first reference.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
FBI, NATO; the Small Business Administration on first reference, the agency after
AP: Spell out state names in running text.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
Word choice and titles of works›
AP: Use toward, forward, backward: no trailing s.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP.
AP: Put composition titles in quotation marks; AP does not italicize.
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP in plain text. Note that exported documents may still render italics where your tool applies them.
"The Great Gatsby," "Citizen Kane"
AP: Over is acceptable for quantities, alongside more than (AP, 2014).
Changes to match APunwrite: Follows AP; either is allowed.
What AP style does not touch›
AP governs surface mechanics. Everything that makes unwrite prose sound like you is unaffected and stays in force.
AP: AP has nothing to say about sentence rhythm, voice, or structure.
Unaffected by APunwrite: The voice-sample match, the anti-AI-pattern rules, the banned-language list, the no-fabrication grounding, and the Editorial Review all run exactly the same with AP style on or off.
AP: AP is a prose style, not a citation system.
Unaffected by APunwrite: If your piece needs references, choose a citation style (MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, or inline hyperlinks) separately. The two settings do not interact.