USA TODAY - Oct. 28

October 28, 2014

            On the front page, the story about Election Day, there is a widow in the second column. Also, “3%” should be written “three percent.” In the assisted suicide story, percent should also be written out on the two occasions it occurs and “on” should be eliminated before the date in the last paragraph. The sky diving story on page 2 uses “5-11” to denote height; AP style would be “5-foot-11.”

            On page 4, a lot of the same problems they have been having were still present. Not spelling out percent, leaving “on” before dates and widows were all present. Perhaps these are all part of USA TODAY’s style, but they don’t follow AP and I couldn’t find a USA TODAY style guide online.

            The “State-by-State briefs have several AP style errors. In Alaska, “e-mail” should be “email.” In Illinois, “6%” should be “six percent.” In Indiana, it should say “10 percent” and “eight percent.” In Montana and Vermont, percent should be spelled out. Nebraska needs to eliminate “on” before the date. In West Virginia, “9%” should read “nine percent.”