AP Style Cutlines (Captions) The Associated Press has created a style for caption writing. It assumes that each and any picture it moves on its wire service may be used by itself, so each photograph is accompanied by complete information.

The 5 Ws: 1. Who – Captions must include the full name, age, and home town of any identifiable subjects included in the photo. Also, if there are multiple subjects, indicate their position within the picture (left, right, center, etc.). Titles and/or designations are also included. Ex: Georgia Southern University journalism professor Charles Brown, 54, left, ... 2. What – Be concise and clear about any actions depicted in the photograph, but don't simply state the obvious. For example, if people are talking – what are they talking about? If someone is running – are they exercising, escaping danger, playing, etc. 3. When – State the day of the week, month, day, and year the photograph was taken. Ex: Wednesday, January 21, 2009. 4. Where – Be specific, such as “in Veazey Hall on the campus of Georgia Southern University,” but also mark the town or city and state. Use AP Style for state abbreviations. Ex: ... in Veazey Hall on the campus of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga. 5. Why - The first sentence of an AP style caption typically includes the first four Ws. Additional sentences, usually one sentence, can explain the “Why,” helping the reader put the photo into context. It may include additional facts or statistics. The use of a subject's quote may be appropriate, also. Ex: Brown is teaching the first multimedia course offered at the university in a program boasting record enrollment this year.

Style and form Active verbs – always use the active form of verbs. Ex: “John Smith runs …” never “John Smith is running ...” Present tense – cutlines should always be written in the present tense, as if the moment depicted is happening right before the viewers' eyes. Credit – Always at the end of a caption, in parentheses, the photographer includes his/her name and affiliation. Ex. (Scott Bryant/Statesboro Herald). For the purposes of this class, include your name/contact information. Note: AP captions are usually rewritten to fit a newspaper's individual style and to avoid redundancy when multiple photographs are published. We will explore captions more typical of daily newspaper style later in the course. Learning to write an AP style caption is important because one never knows how or when a photograph may be used. Complete information is also extremely important for archiving and searching for photographs. 1

Examples of actual AP Cutlines:

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