ABBREVIATIONS
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE
An abbreviation is a shortened version of a written word or a phrase used, instead of the original word.
Abbreviations are formed using either a letter or a group of letters from the word or phrase. For example, UN is the abbreviated term for United Nations while BOC is for Bank of Ceylon.
You may use upper or lower case letters to form an abbreviation. Usually, it depends on the original word. Sometimes, a full-stop is placed after an abbreviated word;
U. S. A. for the United States of America. However, it may depend on the House Style of the document.
Guardian Style Guide does NOT use full-stop or spaces between the abbreviated letters; BBC but not B B C nor B.B.C.; 4am but not 4 a m nor 4 a.m. Same way, Mr, Mrs, and Ms are used instead of Mr. Mrs. and Ms.
According to Hart’s rule, in the British style, an abbreviation should have a full-stop but a contraction should not. Accordingly, Reverend Silva is abbreviated as Rev. Silva and Doctor Thomas is contracted as Dr Thomas in UK English.
In American style, abbreviations as well as contractions, do have a full-stop. Therefore, Reverend Silva is abbreviated as Rev. Silva and Doctor Thomas is contracted as Dr. Thomas in US English.
Certain grammatical contractions make a written report easy to read; ‘is not’ written as isn’t, ‘cannot’ as can’t and ‘you will’ as you’ll. But the report may not look professional!
In academic writing, any abbreviated word or phrase should be spelt in the first occurrence. Subsequent usage of the word or phrase can be abbreviated.
Sometimes, abbreviations make things complicated since the same abbreviation may describe different things. ABA can be American Booksellers Association, but it can also be the Abscisic acid which is a plant hormone! TIFF is the Tagged Image File Format for a publisher while it is Toronto International Film Festival for a movie fan!
Therefore, you have to be really careful when using abbreviations in your writing. It is a good practice to avoid unfamiliar abbreviations whenever possible.
Abbreviations are formed in different ways.
Acronyms take the first letter from each word and make a new word (e.g. NASA, AIDS, scuba). In Alphabetism each letter is pronounced separately (e.g. USA, UN).
Truncation use only the first part of a word (e.g. Cell for cellular phone and Cal for calculator) and Clipped use the middle or the end of the word (varsity for a university, flu for influenza).
Some popular abbreviations in publishing community are,
ISBN: International Standard Book Number, JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group, PDF: Portable Document Format and FTP: File Transfer Protocol.
Links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide
http://www.oup.co.uk/academic/authors/AuthorGuidelinesMain/HouseStyle/#lev16
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/all-about-abbreviations/
Abbreviations are formed using either a letter or a group of letters from the word or phrase. For example, UN is the abbreviated term for United Nations while BOC is for Bank of Ceylon.
You may use upper or lower case letters to form an abbreviation. Usually, it depends on the original word. Sometimes, a full-stop is placed after an abbreviated word;
U. S. A. for the United States of America. However, it may depend on the House Style of the document.
Guardian Style Guide does NOT use full-stop or spaces between the abbreviated letters; BBC but not B B C nor B.B.C.; 4am but not 4 a m nor 4 a.m. Same way, Mr, Mrs, and Ms are used instead of Mr. Mrs. and Ms.
According to Hart’s rule, in the British style, an abbreviation should have a full-stop but a contraction should not. Accordingly, Reverend Silva is abbreviated as Rev. Silva and Doctor Thomas is contracted as Dr Thomas in UK English.
In American style, abbreviations as well as contractions, do have a full-stop. Therefore, Reverend Silva is abbreviated as Rev. Silva and Doctor Thomas is contracted as Dr. Thomas in US English.
Certain grammatical contractions make a written report easy to read; ‘is not’ written as isn’t, ‘cannot’ as can’t and ‘you will’ as you’ll. But the report may not look professional!
In academic writing, any abbreviated word or phrase should be spelt in the first occurrence. Subsequent usage of the word or phrase can be abbreviated.
Sometimes, abbreviations make things complicated since the same abbreviation may describe different things. ABA can be American Booksellers Association, but it can also be the Abscisic acid which is a plant hormone! TIFF is the Tagged Image File Format for a publisher while it is Toronto International Film Festival for a movie fan!
Therefore, you have to be really careful when using abbreviations in your writing. It is a good practice to avoid unfamiliar abbreviations whenever possible.
Abbreviations are formed in different ways.
Acronyms take the first letter from each word and make a new word (e.g. NASA, AIDS, scuba). In Alphabetism each letter is pronounced separately (e.g. USA, UN).
Truncation use only the first part of a word (e.g. Cell for cellular phone and Cal for calculator) and Clipped use the middle or the end of the word (varsity for a university, flu for influenza).
Some popular abbreviations in publishing community are,
ISBN: International Standard Book Number, JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group, PDF: Portable Document Format and FTP: File Transfer Protocol.
Links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide
http://www.oup.co.uk/academic/authors/AuthorGuidelinesMain/HouseStyle/#lev16
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/all-about-abbreviations/
| “I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book. " Roald Dahl (1916 - 1990) |
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