Cities and States

Writers must always spell out the names of states when they appear alone in the sentence. Example: Snow fell heavily in almost all parts of New York yesterday.If both the city and state are used, then AP style indicates that the city should be spelled out, but the state is abbreviated according to the AP manual. Example: The woman lived in Tallahassee, Fla., for ten years.Notice that a single comma goes between the city and the state. It also appears after the state unless the state comes at the end of the sentence. These are the list of states that are never abbreviated: Idaho, Texas, Maine, Alaska, Iowa, Hawaii, Utah, and Ohio. AP abbreviations for state names are different from postal abbreviations so refer to the stylebook or another reliable online source for accurate information.