Abbreviations are shortened forms of normal words. Use abbreviations to make your sentences easier to read or in place of longer, cumbersome words but remember they can hinder people’s understanding, so they have limited uses.
Abbreviations Definition
Abbreviations are common ways to shorten long words, phrases, and proper nouns (not to be confused with common nouns). The key is to differentiate between formal and informal writing, and to understand when it's appropriate to use abbreviations for each.
For more formal writing, always write out the initial word, phrase, or proper noun and show the abbreviation in parentheses. For example:
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is presented thus at its first introduction and all future references become CSIRO.
Abbreviations for Titles and Degrees
Some of the most common ways abbreviations occur in the English language are in titles. Words like doctor, mister, and missus are often abbreviated to Dr., Mr., and Mrs., respectively.
Here are some other common title abbreviations:
· Miss = Ms.
· Senior = Snr.
· Junior = Jr.
University degrees are also often abbreviated. For instance, MBA is an abbreviation for
Master of Business Administration.
Latin Abbreviations
There are a number of Latin abbreviations that are common in English writing. Here are the most common:
· e.g. stands for exempli gratia and means "for example"
· i.e. stands for id est and means "that is"
· etc. stands for et cetera and means "and so forth"
· a.m. stands for ante meridian and means "before noon"
· p.m. stands for post meridian and means "after noon"
Difference between acronyms and initialisms
An acronym is a series of initial letters for a word or phrase. Acronyms are pronounced as a single word, like NASA, IKEA, or radar (Radio Detection and Ranging).
Initialisms are also a series of initial letters, but the letters are pronounced individually instead of as a single word. For example, the WAFL (Western Australian Football League) is pronounced waffle.
Understanding the difference between these two abbreviations will help you decide what indefinite article to use. If you’re referring to a player in the WAFL, you would write, "a WAFL player" because the beginning sound of the initialism is a vowel.
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