The “other” CP Style – How to use Canadian Press Style

Are you wondering why my business is called CP Style? Well, the name has a lot to do with my initials and a lot to do with Canadian Press style, the common writing style used by journalists, publications and universities around the country.

You see, Canadian Press (CP)Style  first officially introduced itself to me when it was referred to as “The Bible” in my Corporate Communications studies at Centennial College in Toronto. It was something I had to refer to everytime I went to write a press release or article. It was the CP Style Guide that taught me how to use capital letters in titles. Rather than writing “Caroline Pigott, Freelance Writer”, one should write “Caroline Pigott, freelance writer”. Titles should never be capitalized after a name. And it was the CP Style Guide that taught me the rule that all numbers before 10 should be spelled out but numbers after 10 should be numerals.

There is a lot to learn with the guide and I, in no way, call myself an expert. In fact, since I write mainly for the web, the concrete CP Style I learned in school wavers every so often. There are times, for example, when I must break the numeric rule and write ‘3′ rather than ‘three’ in order to catch the reader’s attention. While it is an excellent basis for grammar and spelling, there are always exceptions to the rule – which is another blog post entirely.

Yes, ok, at first the style guide was quite confusing to me. I pretty much had to unlearn what I had been taught for the past 20 years. But in actuality, this style guide helps writers in Canada stick to one standard, ridding us all of confusion and helping us to pay attention to our writing and grammar skills.

Here are some additional tips you should know when incorporating CP Style into your writing:

• Commas should be placed between elements of a series but not before and or or (Ex: I ran home to do homework, eat dinner and play with the dog. Not: I ran home to do homework, eat dinner, and play with the dog.)
• The names of animals should be lower case. But proper nouns should be capitalized. (Ex: cat, dog, bird, Great Dane, Dalmation.)
• Abbreviations should be free from capitals unless the abbreviation is a geographical location. (Ex: UFO, ESL, B.C., U.S.)

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Published in Grammar