Abbreviations: When and How to Shorten Your Words

Abbreviations are shortened forms of words and phrases. We often use them to streamline our writing, and they’re particularly useful when replacing long or cumbersome words and phrases that make sentences harder to read.

Always keep in mind that there’s a chance your reader won’t understand the abbreviations you use. For the more obscure or technical ones, it’s good practice to define abbreviations the first time you use them. There are also some guidelines to consider when it comes to using abbreviations or not.

When to Use Abbreviations

You should only use abbreviations if they’re going to make your sentences easier to read and your meaning more clear. Ask yourself these four questions before using an abbreviation:

1. Is the abbreviation common?

Your reader should immediately grasp what your abbreviations mean. Don’t give them more things to think about when they’re reading your work; this might put them off.

Use existing and familiar abbreviations as much as you can. If you can’t find any, either stick with the whole word or phrase, or invent an abbreviation and explain it to the reader.

2. Is spelling out the word or phrase cumbersome or awkward?

If you’re dealing with words and phrases that are either too hard or too long to read, it’s best to use their abbreviations. The flow of your work will be much smoother and readers won’t be subjected to tiresome passages.

But you also need to keep in mind that sometimes reading a short phrase or word is easier than remembering what their abbreviated forms mean.

3. How many times will you use the abbreviation?

If you’re going to mention a particular word or phrase only once or twice, then it might be better to just spell it out. Your readers might find it hard to remember what an abbreviation means if you mention it infrequently.

4. How many abbreviations are you using?

There’s no rule on how many abbreviations you can use, but there is such a thing as overuse. Too many abbreviations in your writing can lead to sentences that are unwieldy and unnecessarily complex. Abbreviate only when doing so makes your writing simpler and improves the flow.

Conventions on Abbreviations

There’s a lot of conventions regulating the use of abbreviations, and they’re often confusing or inconsistent. However, most linguists agree that the important thing is choosing one set of rules and sticking with them throughout your entire piece of writing.

Here are three of the more confusing conventions you’ll be dealing with when it comes to abbreviations:

1. Capitalization

The most common rule is that if a word was originally capitalized, then its abbreviation should be too (Doctor to Dr.). It’s the same when dealing with lowercase words (adverb to adv.). However, abbreviations that have become common vocabulary no longer need to be capitalized, no matter their original case form (Biography to bio).

2. Plural forms

Most people are divided on whether to add an “s” or an “apostrophe s” at the end of an abbreviation to identify plurality. So the plural form of an abbreviated “boulevard” can be blvds or blvd’s.

I prefer simply adding an “s” when making my abbreviations plural, because the second option normally denotes the possessive case. That could lead to some confusion.

Different writing and linguistic institutions have different guidelines for which option to use, so it’s not clear which one is correct. Whichever option you use, just make sure you’re consistent.

3. Periods

Periods are often used to signify that a word is abbreviated. However, there are conflicting rules about when to do this.

According to Hart’s Rules (an authoritative guide on English grammar), it is correct to include a period after every abbreviation, but contractions don’t require it. Yet, British English often disregards this rule and allows writers to use periods for both situations, or neither at all. So Dr. can be written as Dr, Prof. as Prof, Rev. as Rev, and so on.

Acronyms, Initialisms, and Contractions

Acronyms, initialisms, and contractions share common semantic and phonetic characteristics. They’re often associated with or fall under the term “abbreviations,” which has led to them being almost interchangeable.

Acronyms

Acronyms are words formed by taking the initial letters of a longer name or phrase (for example, ASEAN for the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations). There are cases of initial letters being used (SoKor for South Korea) or a combination of the two (Radar for RAdio Detection And Ranging). They’re often (but not always) pronounced as one word, instead of individual letters.

Initialisms

Initialisms are similar to acronyms, because they use the first letters of a word or phrase. Unlike acronyms though, they’re pronounced as a series of letters. So FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is pronounced as ef-bee-ai.

Contractions

Contractions are shortened forms of words or phrases created by omitting letters and sounds (for example: it’s, ‘twas, let’s, or don’t). Don’t confuse them with portmanteaus. While a contraction often sandwiches two words together, their meaning still remains the same. Portmanteaus create new words with new meanings, like smog (taken from smoke and fog).

Abbreviations in Formal Writing

The majority of abbreviations are considered casual, so you won’t see a lot of them in more formal writing. It’s also considered bad form in formal writing to use abbreviations just to save time and space.

Some of the things you should not abbreviate are:

People’s names (Jim for James, Barb for Barbara, etc.) unless those individuals are better known by their nicknames.
Days of the week or months of the year (Wed for Wednesday, Jan for January).
Names of states, institutions, positions, and any other formal names (Mas for Massachusetts, Cong for Congressman).

There are no clear rules for which abbreviations you can use in formal writing, so it’s better to err on the side of caution and spell the word out, or refer to your chosen style guide.

Be Concise

The aim of abbreviation is to make something brief but comprehensive. If you use it effectively, you can deliver your meaning with less effort for you and your readers.

Just don’t get too enthusiastic with your abbreviations though, or your sentences will look more like a string of letters instead of coherent words.

Do you often use abbreviations in your writing? Share the reason why in the comments below!

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