Abbreviations Made Easy - Get Articles by Tim North |  |
> Get Articles > Copywriting > Abbreviations Made Easy Abbreviations Made Easy Download as PDFTim North infobetterwritingskills.com Better Writing Skills http://www.betterwritingskills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- TITLE: Abbreviations Made Easy AUTHOR: Tim North LENGTH: 425 words E-MAIL: infoBetterWritingSkills.com RESTRICTIONS: Not to be sold. Please inform me of any usage. Please make the URL in the resource box a clickable link. Thanks. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ABBREVIATIONS MADE EASY by Tim North, http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com Which is better usage: USA or U.S.A.? The punctuation of abbreviations is an area that is subject to considerable differences of opinion. For example, as demonstrated by the question above, not everyone agrees on when (or if) to use full stops. It's an indication of just how confused this area is that even the basic terminology isn't agreed upon. You'd think that a simple term like abbreviation was easy to define, wouldn't you? Sure you would, yet some camps distinguish between abbreviations and contractions (giving each different punctuation rules), while others lump everything in together as abbreviations. A common definition of abbreviation goes something like this: An abbreviation is a shortened version of a word or phrase and is often followed by a period. For example, c.o.d., ft-lb, St. or publ. Unfortunately, there is rarely any cogent explanation of what is meant by "often followed by a period", so just *when* does an abbreviation take a period, and when doesn't it? In an effort to provide clear answers to these questions, I present the following more precise definitions: An ABBREVIATION is a shortened form of a word that does not include the full word's final letter. A CONTRACTION is a shortened form of a word that does include the full word's final letter. Here are some examples of abbreviations: Tues. Tuesday approx. approximately doz. dozen Aug. August Prof. Professor Aust. Australia a.m. anti meridiem p.m. post meridiem i.e. id est e.g. exempli gratia Abbreviations are followed by a full stop. You can think of the full stop as being a replacement for the missing final letter. Note that abbreviations like "p.m." are actually two separate abbreviations: "p." for "post" and "m." for "meridiem." Here are some examples of contractions. Contractions should not be followed by a full stop as they retain the final letter of the original word. Rd Road govt government St Street ft feet Mr Mister mfg manufacturing Dr Doctor Mme Madame Pty Proprietary Ltd Limited dept department yds yards * * * Not everyone will agree with this approach. Still, in my view, distinguishing between abbreviations and contractions is a better way to proceed than the ambiguous definition quoted earlier that relies on you guessing what "often followed by a period" means. I hope you find this useful. ----------------------------------------------------------------- You'll find over 200 tips like this in Tim North's new e-book BETTER WRITING SKILLS. It's just $19.95 and comes with a 90-day, money-back guarantee. Download a FREE CHAPTER now. http://www.betterwritingskills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- How useful did you find this article? This article can be downloaded freely from http://www.get-articles.com and used on your website or in your ezine so long as the author is credited and their resource box left intact. You should not change any links in the article, and where the article is used on a website it's links should be clickable. Please see our terms and conditions page for more information: http://www.get-articles.com/authors-publishers-terms.php |
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