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Last Seven Days

Question from Sacramento, California, on Aug. 16, 2026

Is lake bed two words (as Merriam Webster says) or one word (lakebed)? I see it used as "lakebed" in numerous AP stories and yet other AP stories have it as two words, so AP is inconsistent. It would be helpful if the Stylebook clarified which usage is preferred. Thanks.

Answer

Two words, per Merriam-Webster.

Question from Fairfax, Virginia, on Aug. 13, 2026

Now that the em dash (much loved by our staff) has become a notorious linguistic fingerprint for AI-generated text, many human writers are said to be abandoning the punctuation mark entirely out of fear that their work will look automated. What is your recommendation on its use? 
Sandra Jontz 

Answer

I wrote a blog post about this very subject! Here's an excerpt: "People are looking for authenticity and trying to pinpoint any signs of something being inauthentic. It’d be nice if there was an easy tell. Unfortunately, that tell is not the em dash, which has been around for many years. In fact, they are so ubiquitous in AP lingo, we just call them dashes."
Still, our Stylebook entry says to avoid overusing them when a comma would suffice: "Semicolons also work well. Or you could just start a new sentence. "

Question on Aug. 13, 2026

When attributing a quote that is a single, complex sentence, should I put the attribution after the first clause of the sentence or after the entire sentence?
"I spoke with the client at the office," he said, "and he told me he had been having this problem for weeks, and I've already submitted an action line on his behalf."
or,
"I spoke with the client at the office, and he told me he had been having this problem for weeks, and I've already submitted an action line on his behalf," he said.

Answer

I would put the attribution at the end. Or you could paraphrase!

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