Abbreviations

Unfamiliar abbreviations confuse readers. If you intend to use an acronym, or word made up from the first letters of a group of words e.g. ASEAN, UNESCO, NS; first, write the words in full, giving the acronym afterwards. From then on you may use the acronym as long as you limit the number of different acronyms.

In formal writing, it is better not to abbreviate anyone’s name e.g. even if your broker calls himself Jimmy Li, in a formal report you should write Mr. Jimmy Li

English has a variety of conventions with names. One widely approved is NOT to put a full stop after Mr; Miss; Mrs; Dr or other courtesy titles.

However, the full stop is still required for words like Rev. for Reverend or Prof. for Professor.

The reason for this is that words in the former group are not really abbreviations, but contractions, since the last letter of the original word is still there.

This same rule applies for other abbreviations e.g. foot would be abbreviated to ft but inches to in.

If you often use a full stop after all such abbreviations, it doesn’t matter as long as you do so consistently.

In addresses on correspondence, current practice is to drop all punctuation e.g.
Mr Ching Chong Chang
100 Orchid Road
Singapore

Dear Mr Ching (OR Dear Chong Chang if you know him well)

Some Latin abbreviations are constantly useful in English. Be sure to use them correctly:
- i.e. = that is

- e.g. = for example

- etc. = that is and so on
[Careful with this in formal writing: some readers take it to mean “I know more but can’t be bothered to write it all out for you.” It’s safer to keep it out or write: …and so on]

The ampersand (&) should be used only with the names of companies and joint authors.

In plural abbreviations, remember that an apostrophe does NOT show the plural. Simply add s e.g. Vols; The 1990s; The ABCs of grammar