#7

One thing that I learned from the AP book is the address thing.  How you use abbreviations when the actual number is involved and how you spell the name of the street in reference without numbers.  For example: 1754 Washington Ave. or I live on Washington Avenue.  The other thing that stuck out was the fact that you need to spell out the state when referring to it in a story.  I am used to always using state abbreviations because it is easier.  Truthfully, I am not sure I can spell the names of all the states correctly.  I think using the full name of the state is probably pretty helpful to many people who don’t travel much or have visited a lot of different states.  I know I like being able to associate a story with where it occurred.  If I know the place, I can mentally create an idea of the story in my mind.

I actually like how they have dropped using Mr., Mrs., Ms., courtesy titles unless people request being addressed that way.  I always wondered how I was to refer to myself.  I felt I should say Ms., because it seemed less restricted.  This seemed to always lead people to think it meant I was hiding something or that there was a “reason” I used it or that I was too independent to refer to myself as linked to my husband.  None of these reasons were correct, so I tried to avoid using courtesy titles as much as possible.