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Last Seven Days

Question from Hackettstown, New Jersey, on May 11, 2026

Hi! Does this headline need a hyphen? 

Conversation Starter Practice

Thanks!

Answer

Yes, I would include a comma for clarity. 

Question on May 7, 2026

I have a question about the guidance to use the same verb tense for each item in a bullet list - is it ever okay to mix tense (treat vs treated) in an example like this:

Thanks to your generosity:
We treated more than 500 new cancer patients last year. We cared for more than 2,000 kids in our Cancer Survivor Program over the last four years. We treat more than xxxx unique sickle cell disease patients each year. We treated more than xxx patients across three campuses. 



Answer

This is fine. It is clear why you're using the different verb tense, because this point refers to each year instead of a specific range. 

Question from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on May 7, 2026

So...there are still conflicting responses in Ask the Editor regarding whether to bold the comma after bold text, especially when the surrounding text before and after the bold text is not bold. The most recent entry I had been using as a guideline said to NOT bold the punctuation after the bold text UNLESS the entire sentence was boldface; however, it has been deleted even though it was added in the past 2-3 years. That takes me back to a 2021 response that says to bold the punctuation, even when surrounding text is not bold. Do you have a definitive response?

Answer

Since AP doesn't use bold, I don't feel I can be definitive. You could reasonably follow the guidance about quotation marks: the period and the comma always go within the quotation marks. The dash, the semicolon, the colon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

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