A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018

General principles
Abbreviations
Style

24.1 General Principles

24.1.1 Types of Abbreviations

24.1.2 When to Use Abbreviations

24.1.3 How to Format Abbreviations

24.2 Names and Titles

24.2.1 Personal Names

24.2.2 Professional Titles

24.2.3 Academic Degrees

24.2.4 Agencies, Companies, and Other Organizations

24.3 Geographical Terms

24.3.1 Place-Names

24.3.2 Addresses

24.4 Time and Dates

24.4.1 Time

24.4.2 Days and Months

24.4.3 Eras

24.5 Units of Measure

24.6 The Bible and Other Sacred Works

24.6.1 Jewish Bible / Old Testament

24.6.2 Apocrypha

24.6.3 New Testament

24.6.4 Versions of the Bible

24.6.5 Other Sacred Works

24.7 Abbreviations in Citations and Other Scholarly Contexts

This chapter offers general guidelines for using abbreviations. Abbreviations in formal writing were once limited to a few special circumstances, but they are now widely used in writing of all kinds. Even so, their use must reflect the conventions of specific disciplines. The guidelines presented here are appropriate for most humanities and social science disciplines. If you are writing a paper in the natural or physical sciences, mathematics, or any other technical field, follow the conventions of the discipline.

The dictionaries from Merriam-Webster include entries for many abbreviations from many fields. Another resource is chapter 10 of The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (2017). For style guides in various disciplines, see the bibliography.

If you are writing a thesis or dissertation, your department or university may have specific requirements for using abbreviations, which are usually available from the office of theses and dissertations. If you are writing a class paper, your instructor may also ask you to follow certain principles for using abbreviations. Review these requirements before you prepare your paper. They take precedence over the guidelines suggested here.

24.1 General Principles

24.1.1 Types of Abbreviations

Terms can be shortened, or abbreviated, in several ways. When a term is shortened to only the first letters of each word and pronounced as a single word (NATO, AIDS), it is called an acronym; if the letters are pronounced as a series of letters (EU, PBS), it is called an initialism. Other terms are shortened through contraction: just the first and last letters of the term are retained (Mr., Dr., atty.), or the last letters are dropped (ed., Tues.). This chapter treats all of these forms under the general term abbreviations, with distinctions between types noted as relevant.

24.1.2 When to Use Abbreviations

In most papers, use abbreviations only sparingly in text because they can make your writing seem either too informal or too technical. This chapter covers types of abbreviations that are preferred over spelled-out terms and others that are considered acceptable in academic writing if used consistently.

If your local guidelines allow it, you may use abbreviations for names, titles, and other terms used frequently in your paper. Give the full term on first reference, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. For subsequent references, use the abbreviation consistently. If you use more than a few such abbreviations, consider adding a list of abbreviations to the front matter of the paper to aid readers who might miss your first reference to an abbreviation (see A.2.1).

Abbreviations are more common, and are often required, outside the text of the paper. This chapter discusses some abbreviations that may be used in tables, figures, and citations. For additional discussion of abbreviations in tables and figures, see chapter 26; for abbreviations in notes-style citations, see 16.1.6 and chapter 17; for abbreviations in author-date citations, see 18.1.6 and chapter 19.

24.1.3 How to Format Abbreviations

Although abbreviations follow the general principles discussed here, there are many exceptions.

✵ ▪ Capitalization. Abbreviations are given in all capital letters, all lowercase letters, or a combination.

o BC

o CEO

o US

o p.

o a.m.

o kg

o Gov.

o Dist. Atty.

o PhD

✵ ▪ Punctuation. In general, abbreviations given in all capital letters do not include periods, while those given in lowercase or a combination of capital and lowercase letters have a period after each abbreviated element. However, as you can see from the examples above, there are exceptions: metric units of measure (see 24.5) are in lowercase without periods; and no periods are used for academic degrees, whether or not they include lowercase letters (see 24.2.3). Other exceptions are noted throughout this chapter.

✵ ▪ Spacing. In general, do not leave a space between letters in acronyms (NATO) and initialisms (PBS), but do leave a space between elements in abbreviations formed through shortening (Dist. Atty.), unless the first element is a single letter (S.Sgt.). If an abbreviation contains an ampersand (&), do not leave spaces around it (Texas A&M). For spaces in personal names, see 24.2.1.

✵ ▪ Italics. Abbreviations are not normally italicized unless they stand for an italicized term (OED, for Oxford English Dictionary).

✵ ▪ Indefinite articles. When an abbreviation follows an indefinite article, choose between a and an depending on how the abbreviation is read aloud. Acronyms (NATO, AIDS) are pronounced as words; initialisms (EU, FDA) are read as a series of letters.