By Erica Gustafson, Opinion Editor
As a junior strategic communication & digital media major here at St. Bonaventure University, writing is a huge aspect in all areas of the field. Most courses within the Jandoli School of Communication emphasize the importance of correct grammar, punctuation, style and usage. It is important for writing to be exact when trying to get a specific concept or information realized.
In my writing, I was asked by professors to use a specific guide to help correct the different aspects of my writing. This tool is called the Associated Press Stylebook. Since I started my freshman year, I have been using this book to help in my journalism courses and while writing and editing articles for the Bona Venture Newspaper.
A 2018 acrolinx.com blog article from Cynthia Spiers talks about how the AP Stylebook is one of the four U.S. style guides that every writer needs to know about. Spiers writes that the stylebook is basically “the media bible.”
She continues by saying that “it contains commonly accepted journalistic standards for usage, spelling, grammar and punctuation. Most U.S. newspapers, magazines and broadcast writers use it as their go-to style guide. It’s also characterized by its commitment to keeping writing style easy, concise and free of bias.”
The only personal dispute I have for using this guide is the fact that I had never worked with it prior to entering my college major; it is a big part of my specific field. My high school English and writing teacher never put much focus on this stylebook. They mentioned it once or twice, but it was never explained. No one told me how to use it or its purposes. Even when regarding citations.
My high school education focused solely on the Modern Language Association’s MLA Handbook. In reading Spiers’ article, she explained this to be the most used style guide in the academic world.
Spiers continues to say that “it’s often used in teaching and lays out the principles behind citing and documenting sources and gives detailed guidelines on scholarly writing and formatting manuscripts.”
I completely understand that using this MLA format is important to teach students when they are first learning how to cite and write scholarly content. However, as a college student working through a communications degree, it would have been helpful to learn more about the other style guides. In my case, the AP Stylebook.
If I am completely honest with myself, I was nervous to work with the AP Stylebook when I started my Bonaventure classes. I had never really worked with it before, so it felt like I was academically behind everyone else in my classes. Prior instruction on how to use this academic tool in my high school years would have prepared me more to work with it in my college years.
I compare this to using a hand drill.
A person may understand what the drill is intended to do, but they need some instruction on how to actually use one properly. Without reading instructions or watching a demonstration, a person would be guessing how to use a tool the way it is supposed to.
High school educations do not know where their students will be heading in the future, so it is important for them to explain these writing tools for students to use if they find a need to. It will be just another tool they will have as they enter into their perspective fields.
gustafea18@bonaventure.edu.
