My Journal

Photo Source: Associated Press

Working on The Santa Clara is not a job for the weak of mind, though, perhaps not for the reasons you initially thought. The long nights and low pay do not necessarily help; but don’t feel bad for us, we looked upon journalism’s financially barren field before signing up for this and decided to go for it anyway.

What truly sets working on the newspaper apart from any other publication here is the Associated Press Style Guide, commonly referred to as AP Style. You know, the one your professor said was an option back in the Fall quarter of your first year that you immediately forgot about in favor of the Modern Language Association Style, or MLA?

For those of you graciously unaware, style guides help writers maintain consistent standards throughout the entirety of their pieces by setting rules for grammar, punctuation and stylistic choices. For newspapers, the industry standard is Associated Press Style, while for college classes, students are often encouraged to choose a style they most prefer.

In case you’re curious why I burned my AP stylebook, here is a curated list of the absolute worst parts about being forced to use AP style for absolutely everything you write in journalism:

The egregious amount of rules to follow. You thought MLA style was bad? Buckle up for the 640-page style book you get chucked at you the first time you walk into The Santa Clara. Congrats! This 500-pound book is now your responsibility! You better follow it closely or potentially get sued!

We were exclusively taught MLA style in high school, with the slightest of briefest mentions of AP Style in our four-year high school career. How many hours did you spend staring at an otherwise empty page safe for your name, class, professor and date? All that trauma, for naught.

The removal of the Oxford comma. Disgustingly, the AP Style guide only required the removal of the comma to save print newspapers space and money. Can we stop sacrificing reader comprehension for the good of the economy? I demand to see a 640-page essay outlining how much money removing the Oxford comma is saving newspapers. Oh, and make sure it’s in AP Style.

These injustices will haunt me until the day I perish. And even then, you can rip the Oxford Comma from my cold, wrinkly and dead hands — which my editors have unfortunately done.