Robbery -- Write With (AP) Style

Was Robert Wiess a robber or a burglar?

He was a robber. How do I know that? AP Style, under burglary, larceny, robbery, theft:

... in general, a burglary involves entering a building (not necessarily by breaking in) and remaining unlawfully with the intention of committing a crime.

Larceny is the legal term for the wrongful taking of property. Its nonlegal equivalents are stealing or theft.

Robbery in the legal sense involves the use of violence or threat in committing larceny ...

Theft describes a larceny that did not involve threat, violence or plundering.

USAGE NOTE: You rob a person, bank, house, ect. but you steal the money or the jewels.

Please review AP Style under burglary, larceny, robbery, theft.

Is it 11:00 p.m. or 11 p.m. or 11 pm or 11 o'clock?

It's 11 p.m., or maybe 11 o'clock. Under "times":

Use figures except for noon and midnight. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m. . . . The construction 4 o'clock is acceptable, but time listings with a.m. or p.m. are preferred.

In the wake of this exercise, please be sure to review the AP Style listings for times.

Also, is it 1284 East Forest Boulevard or 1284 E. Forest Blvd.?

In this case, it was 71284 E. Forest Blvd. From AP Style, under addresses:

Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number: Pennsylvania Avenue. Lowercase and spell out when used alone or with more than one street name: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues.

Abbreviate compass points used to indicate directional ends of a street or quadrants of a city in a numbered address: 222 E. 42nd St., 562 W. 43rd St., 600 K. St. NW. Do not abbreviate if teh number is omitted: East 42nd Street, West 43rd Street, K Street Northwest. No periods in quadrant abbreviations -- NW, SE -- unless customary locally.

I strongly suggest you review AP Style information listed under the categories of addresses and also under highway designations.

Also, Is it 22 year-old or 22-year-old or 22 year old? AP Style under ages says this: Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun.

So it's 22-year-old. Please review AP Style under ages.

I know the AP Stylebook is a lot to digest. But as this class goes on, I expect that you improve by checking your word use against the AP Stylebook, and by remembering AP Style rules as we go along.

What I'm saying is, I don't expect you to make the same mistake twice. I expect you to learn from your mistakes and apply the lessons going forward.

When it comes to types of language you're likely to frequently -- like numbers and money references -- you may want to make a cheat sheet that you can quickly refer to. Just an idea, folks.