Thursday, the Associated Press announced the release of AP StyleGuard, a Microsoft Word plug in that provides automatic checking of documents for AP Style.
Coming from journalism school, I’m supposed to despise things like AP StyleGuard, Auto Correct or Word’s wizardly mix of ones and zeroes designed to polish even the nastiest sentence to a brilliant shine. I don’t, and even if you do, you have to admit Word and AutoCorrect have come a long way over the years.
Of course, blindly taking spelling and grammar cues from an electronic editor can yield mixed results — see the numerous sites dedicated to the humorous results of AutoCorrect on mobile phones — but a yearly updated, built-into-Word AP guide could certainly be beneficial for writers working on news releases or articles under tight deadlines.
These kinds of tools often draw criticism from those who feel no computer program can grasp the nuances of the English language, and I imagine AP StyleGuard will do the same. This is an expected reaction from writers who have invested years pouring over and memorizing everything in the Stylebook like a bible — learning the fact that “Seeing Eye dog” and “Styrofoam” should be capitalized (they’re trademarked words), the AP-approved term for “hillbilly” (it’s “mountaineer”), and the preferred spelling of “barbecue” (get it together, Rudy’s Bar-B-Q). But, this is just another tool in the writer’s toolkit, not a replacement for the trained eyes of an experienced copy editor.
In response to one negative comment on Twitter, AP Stylebook replied, “StyleGuard is a useful tool, but it’s not a substitute for the skills you develop as a knowledgeable writer.”
I for one welcome the addition of any tool that leverages technology to make the complex task of communicating easier. Unfortunately, I’m a Mac guy, so it’s flipping through the paper and ink AP Stylebook for me. (For any other Mac users, AP Stylebook hinted on Twitter that a Mac version might be coming at some point.)
AP Stylebook online subscribers can check out the beta now; print subscribers can use AP StyleGuard starting Jan. 16. AP StyleGuard requires a PC running Windows XP or higher and Microsoft Office 2003 or higher. A one-year subscription starts at $49.99.
Whatever you do for work or leisure, you likely spend some time communicating via the written word. The digital age may have lowered the standards of what’s acceptable in writing, but that doesn’t mean there’s no value in a well-constructed sentence or properly placed punctuation. Whether posting on Facebook about a recent vacation or dealing with colleagues and clients over email, written words play a major role in our day-to-day lives.
