LAO Style
Table of Contents
ToggleAP Style
The Los Angeles Observer uses Associated Press Style with the following modifications:
- Bold or Italic? – LAO uses italics for the titles of works, see below, therefore, we do not use italics for emphasis. For emphasis, use bold. Sparingly. Bold-italic should be avoided, except in the rare case of needing to emphasise the title of a work.
- Citing a work of art – Author, Title, year, medium, dimensions (HxWxD, if necessary), collection, city. E.g.: Ellsworth Kelly, Green Angle, 1970, oil on canvas, 5.867 x 17.78 m, The Broad, Los Angeles.
- Comma, Oxford – yes!
- Names – California State University, Los Angeles, on first use, then CSULA
- Names – East Los Angeles College, on first use, then ELAC
- Names – Long Beach State University, on first use, then LBSU
- Names – Santa Monica College, on first use, then SMC
- Names – UCLA and USC, on first use. No periods between letters and no need to spell out on first use.
- Numbers – at the start of a sentence, spell out up to one hundred, use figures for 101 and above. Or, rewrite sentence. Inside a sentence, AP Style: spell out one through nine, and use figures for 10 and above.
- Numbers, Dimensions of a work of art – dimensions follow the work’s medium and are listed in order of Height x Width and, if applicable, x Depth. eg: “oil on canvas, 45 x 38 cm”, “Bronze, 49 x 22 x 16 in.”
- Numbers, Fractions – no space between a whole number and a fraction. See how to type fractions below.
- Titles of Works – MLA Style, see below
Style Questions?
- editor@LAobserver.org
References
MLA Style for titles of works
Italics | “In Quotation Marks” |
---|---|
Books | “Book Chapters” |
Websites | “Web pages” |
News publications | “News articles” |
Journals | “Journal articles” |
TV shows | “TV episodes” |
Magazines | “Magazine articles” |
Albums | “Songs” |
Anthologies | “Short stories” |
Plays | “Poems” |
Films | “YouTube videos” |
Visual art with title: Starry Night | Visual art without title: Chair of stained oak |
How to type fractions
To type 53/4 inches:
- First type the 5
- Then without a space select “X2 Superscript” from the “v” more type styles drop down in the formatting ribbon.
- Type the numerator. In this case, “3”
- Then go to the dropdown again to de-select “X2 Superscript” (it’s sticky and will stay in superscript mode till you click it again)
- Type the “/”
- Back to the dropdown, select “X2 Subscript”
- Type the denominator. In this case, “4”
- Back to the dropdown and de-select “X2 Subscript”
- Finally type a space and “inches” or some other unit of measure.