CV NEWS FEED // The AP Stylebook guidelines continue to push for the use of progressive language in writing, one year after coming under fire for recommending that writers avoid the word “woke.”
According to PR Newswire’s “Beyond Bylines”, the AP Stylebook has recently updated guidelines for writers covering topics related to “Pride” month, critical race theory, the summer Olympics, Independence Day, and other topics.
Rocky Parker wrote for “Beyond Bylines” highlighting and summarizing various updates, especially relevant to topics covered in the summertime, that have been made to the AP Stylebook.
When writing about “Pride” month, according to Parker’s summary of the recent changes, AP recommends the following:
LGBTQ+ is acceptable in all references for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning, plus other sexual and gender minorities.
Avoid using LGBTQ+ to describe individuals, and don’t default to LGBTQ+ if discussing a more specific population, like a bisexual advocacy group or a transgender health program.
AP also requires capitalizing “Pride” when referencing specific events or LGBT-focused organizations, and writing “pride” in lowercase “when referring to generic events or the general concept of LGBTQ+ pride.”
According to the AP Stylebook, the word “queer” has evolved over time, so writers should be careful when using it.
The online website PR Say style covered these guidelines for writing about “pride” or LGBT-related topics in a 2023 article as well, but had more extensive coverage on AP’s guidelines for writing about “transgender” men and women.
According to PR Say’s article, AP’s guidelines recommend that writers:
Avoid references to a transgender person being born a boy or girl, or phrasing like birth gender. Sex (or gender) assigned at birth is the accurate terminology. The shorthand trans is acceptable on second reference and in headlines.
A person who is assigned female at birth and transitions to align with their identity as a boy or man is a transgender boy or transgender man, and a person who is assigned male at birth and transitions to align with their identity as a girl or woman is a transgender girl or woman.
Parker’s 2024 “Beyond Bylines” article covers more general AP rules for writing about “Pride.” It also covers guidelines for writing about “Back-to-School” topics, including rules for how to write about critical race theory.
According to Parker’s article, the AP Stylebook’s general rule for writing about critical race theory highlights:
Critical race theory is an academic framework that centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that those institutions maintain the dominance of white people. The theory is a way of analyzing American history through the lens of racism. Explain the term when used and don’t use CRT on later references.
In 2023, the AP Stylebook came under criticism for its guidelines on using the word “woke.” The Stylebook recommended that writers no longer use the word “woke,” arguing that its original, positive meaning used by progressives had since been used in a derogatory way by conservatives. As such, its intended meaning could be unclear to readers.
According to a May 2023 FOX News article, the AP Stylebook then-Twitter (now X) account posted an explanation of the word “woke” and the guidelines for when to use it.
Per FOX:
“A slang term that originally described enlightenment or awakening about issues of racial and other forms of social justice,” read an explanation of the word in an AP Stylebook post on Twitter Wednesday. “Some people and groups, especially conservatives, now use it in a derogatory sense implying what they see as overreactions. Avoid using the term other than in direct quotations.”
One commenter’s reaction to the guideline “pointed out that the guidance in itself could be considered woke,” FOX reported:
“They legit just used a woke definition do describe the word ‘woke,’” the comment said.
In 2022, AP updated guidelines on writing about abortion and pregnancy-related topics, and recommended writing “pregnant people” instead of “pregnant women” to be more “inclusive.”
The Daily Signal reported in July 2022 that the AP guideline reads: “Phrasing like pregnant people or people who seek an abortion seeks to include people who have those experiences, but do not identify as women, such as some transgender men and some nonbinary people.”
The Signal’s columnist Jarrett Stepman pointed out that rather than continuing to provide journalists with an unbiased set of guidelines to follow, AP’s once-respected standards have declined and been replaced with ideology.
AP has “been rapidly ditching its reputation for evenhandedness to join in the institutional scramble for left-wing ideological absolutism and conformity,” Stepman wrote.
