In the mid-1980s I was posted to the Joint Staff (properly capitalized … I checked), where I worked alongside members of the Marine Corps, Navy, and Army, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Central Intelligence Agency. Since each service and agency had its own set of rules for speaking and writing, rules which sometimes conflicted, we were told to use the Associated Press Stylebook<\/a><\/strong> as our common guide. The AP Stylebook sits on my desk today, and I consult it whenever I have a question or forget a rule.<\/p>\n This is from a post I wrote in 2014<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n When I worked for the US Special Operations Command in the 1980s, I learned that the most important skill a staff officer can have is the ability to write clearly. Each officer at USSOCOM was issued an AP Stylebook, along with a 9mm Baretta pistol and holster. We kept the pistols in safes when we weren’t using them; the style guides were on our desks and in use around the clock. You were far more likely to have someone waving a style guide at you than a pistol. Which made the more important and lasting contribution to our nation’s military readiness? My money’s on the AP Stylebook.<\/em><\/p>\n In spite of Google’s handiness and ease of use, my standard (save for serial commas) is still the AP Stylebook. I bought a new edition a couple of years ago. I found that I prefer the 1984 edition, the one I was given at USSOCOM. The spiral binder is what makes it … when it’s open the pages lay flat and you can type without having to hold the book open with one hand (you can probably guess I just had it open to the “lay, lie” entry).<\/em><\/p>\n Sometimes AP gets it wrong, as it does with the serial or Oxford comma, the one before the conjunction at the end of a series of items, as in “the flag is red, white, and blue.” AP would have us write “the flag is red, white and blue.” I say AP can piss up a rope. Even when I wrote official documents for the Joint Staff, I always used serial commas, and to my recollection no one ever called me on it.<\/p>\n I’m in my 70s now, and when I write the only organization I represent is pwoodford.net<\/a><\/strong>, so I reckon I can be a curmudgeon and disagree with the AP Stylebook on a point or two.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_0992\"](\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/7480\/16138528442_d7a97e8419_z.jpg\")
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