When do you abbreviate

Notice that Miss is not an abbreviation, so we don't put a period after it. The plural of Mr. We invited Messrs. Carter, Lincoln, and Ford. The plural of Dr. We consulted Drs. The plural of Mrs. In most formal prose, we do not use titles, abbreviated or otherwise, with individuals. Emily Dickinson is simply Emily Dickinson, and after the first use of her full name, Dickinson will do unless we need Emily to avoid confusion with other Dickinsons.

The abbreviations Rev. In informal language or when we're trying to save space or make a list, we can write Rev. Alan B. Darling and Hon. Francisco Gonzales. In formal text, we would write "the Reverend Alan B.

Darling" and "the Honorable Francisco Gonzales" i. Incidentally, we cannot say "We invited the reverend to dinner" and only a cad would invite "the rev.

These are standard abbreviations, with periods. The APA Publication Manual recommends not using periods with degrees; other reference manuals do recommend using periods, so use your own judgment on this issue. All sources advise against using titles before and after a name at the same time i. Juanita Espinoza, PhD. And we do not abbreviate a title that isn't attached to a name: "We went to see the doctor not dr. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends not using a comma to separate the Jr.

If you list a "junior" with his spouse, the "Jr. Arthur C. Banks Jr. You should avoid using a "Jr. Notice that U. Also, we can use U. Generally, you would use these abbreviations only in technical writing. There is a space between the number and the abbreviation.

Notice that we do not put an s after such abbreviations even when the plural is indicated. Also, we do not use a period with such abbreviations except for in. Chomsky , Sgt. Yorke , Mgr. However, it is usually much better to write these titles out in full when you are using them in a sentence: Professor Chomsky , Sergeant Yorke , Monsignor Lindemann.

The abbreviated forms are best confined to places like footnotes and captions of pictures. Note carefully the use of full stops in these abbreviations. British usage favours omitting the full stop in abbreviations which include the first and last letters of a single word, such as Mr , Mrs , Ms , Dr and St ; American usage prefers A Mr. Most other abbreviated titles, however, require a full stop , as shown above. A person's initials are a kind of abbreviation, and these are usually followed by full stops : John D.

Rockefeller , C. Aubrey Smith , O. And note the rare special case illustrated by Harry S Truman : the S in this name never takes a full stop , because it's not an abbreviation for anything; President Truman's parents actually gave him the middle name S. Two other common abbreviations are a. These are always acceptable.

Note that these are not capitalized in British usage though American usage prefers A Also usual are the abbreviations b. The emperor Vespasian died in a. It is traditional, and recommended, to write a. Non-Christians who do not use the Christian calendar may prefer to use b. This is always acceptable: According to tradition, Rome was founded in b. The emperor Vespasian died in 79 c. All four of these abbreviations are commonly written in small capitals , and you should follow this practice if you can; if you can't produce small capitals , use full-sized capitals instead.

All four of them are also now very frequently written without full stops : bc , ad 79, bce , 79 ce. This reflects the increasing tendency to omit the full stops in abbreviations, and I myself prefer to write bc , and so on.

Note also that, when an abbreviation comes at the end of a sentence, only one full stop is written. You should never write two full stops in a row. Many large and well-known organizations and companies have very long names which are commonly abbreviated to a set of initials written in capital letters, usually with no full stops.

And, if you're writing for a non-British readership, you'd better not use the abbreviated forms of specifically British institutions, such as the TUC , without explaining them. If you are in doubt, explain the abbreviation the first time you use it. Note that a few of these were formerly written with full stops , such as R. A few other abbreviations are so well known that you can use them safely in your writing.

Indeed, in some of these cases, the abbreviated form of the name is far more familiar than the full name. However, the list is small. Scribbr Plagiarism Checker. Instead, put them inside parentheses followed by a comma, or write out full words. Periods should always be used with Latin abbreviations, but not with contractions or acronyms. Abbreviations including acronyms are heavily used in legal writing.

The conventions must be strictly followed, but they vary between countries and universities. If you are writing on a legal topic, you should adhere to the relevant style. If you are following the APA style guidelines , there are some specific guidelines for certain types of abbreviation. Only abbreviate statistical terms such as SD and M and units of measurement such as kg and min if you are also using a number. Use periods if you are abbreviating a Latin term such as g. She loves the challenge of finding the perfect formulation or wording and derives much satisfaction from helping students take their academic writing up a notch.

Have a language expert improve your writing. Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes. Do the check. Generate your APA citations for free! APA Citation Generator. Home Knowledge Base Academic writing Using abbreviations and acronyms. Using abbreviations and acronyms Published on August 1, by Sarah Vinz.