AP is an abbreviation for the Associated Press. The Associated Press has its roots buried in the year 1848. The Associated Press began to take shape when six New York newspapers decided to gather adequate resources for international tidings. It was a collective and scrutinized effort of the newspaper authorities. Gradually, AP grew and touched new, awe-inspiring heights. In today's day and age, AP is the world's largest news establishment. People now have an access to read, watch and hear AP news. It indeed, has had a wide and influential impact on the news rendering sector. AP has maintained a standard that is par excellence with regards to its news and written pieces meant for readers from all walks of life. The AP reporters wrote pieces for readers irrespective of their economic background or their educational qualifications. They wrote for a single entity and that was 'readers'. Apart from being a preferred read amongst all divisions of the society, it covered a wide array of topics and political ideologies and perspectives. The writing style is a benchmark for being simple, easy to comprehend, succinct and egalitarian in nature. The Associated Press style journal specifies the news organizational regulations on linguistics of the language. To make newspapers, magazines, journals and reports devoid of linguistic handicaps, the style-book is a helpful guide. It is a known fact that no one can master the AP state abbreviations in a jiffy. It requires diligence and concentration to practice and get acquainted with the abbreviated form delivered by the AP style guide. The thumb rule for the basic AP style state abbreviations is that one should never abbreviate the term if the readers will face difficulty in figuring out what the actual term is. The main objective of any type of writing is to help people understand what you are trying to say and explain. On the contrary, by using incomprehensible abbreviations, it will make the readers work to understand, extremely taxing and annoying. AP Style Guide State Abbreviations Here are some commonly used state abbreviations you could refer to. Remember to spell the state in entirety when it appears solo in a sentence or a statement. Abbreviate the states when they are coupled with the name of a city, town or village. States whose names are short, rather five or less than five letters should not be abbreviated. Punctuate the couple, i.e. place a comma in between the state and the city name, and after the state name again, if the sentence does not end there.

State	Abbreviation
Alabama	Ala.
Alaska	AK
Arizona	Ariz.
Arkansas	Ark.
California	Calif.
Colorado	Colo.
Connecticut	Conn.
Delaware	Del.
District of Columbia	D.C.
Florida	Fla.
Georgia	Ga.
Hawaii	Hawaii
Idaho	Idaho
Illinois	Ill.
Indiana	Ind.
Iowa	Iowa
Kansas	Kan.
Kentucky	Ky.
Louisiana	La.
Maine	Maine
Maryland	Md.
Massachusetts	Mass.
Michigan	Mich.
Minnesota	Minn.
Mississippi	Miss.
Missouri	Mo.
Montana	Mont.
Nebraska	Neb.
Nevada	Nev.
New Hampshire	N.H.
New Jersey	N.J.
New Mexico	N.M.
New York	N.Y.
North Carolina	N.C.
North Dakota	N.D.
Ohio	Ohio
Oklahoma	Okla.
Oregon	Ore.
Pennsylvania	Pa.
Rhode Island	R.I.
South Carolina	S.C.
South Dakota	S.D.
Tennessee	Tenn.
Texas	Texas
Utah	Utah
Vermont	Vt.
Virginia	Va.
Washington	Wash.
West Virginia	W.Va.
Wisconsin	Wis.
Wyoming	Wyo.

The list provided here would serve to be a quick reference to make, spelling the states in their abbreviated form, a simpler and sorted task.