Editing Abbreviation (section)

=== Conventions followed by publications and newspapers ===

==== United States ====

Publications based in the U.S. tend to follow the style guides of ''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]'' and the [[Associated Press]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Chicago Manual of Style, explained {{!}} University of Chicago News |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/explainer/chicago-manual-style-explained |access-date=2024-06-23 |website=news.uchicago.edu |language=en}}</ref> The U.S. government follows a style guide published by the [[U.S. Government Printing Office]]. The [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]] sets the style for abbreviations of units.

==== United Kingdom ====

Many British publications follow some of these guidelines in abbreviation:
* For the sake of convenience, many British publications, including the [[BBC]] and ''[[The Guardian]]'', have completely done away with the use of periods in all abbreviations. These include:
** Social titles, e.g. Ms or Mr (though these would usually have not had periods—see above) Capt, Prof, ''etc.;''
** Two-letter abbreviations for countries (''"US"'', not ''"U.S."'');
** Abbreviations beyond three letters (full caps for all except initialisms{{clarify|date=November 2015}});
** Words seldom abbreviated with lower case letters (''"PR"'', instead of ''"p.r."'', or ''"pr"'')
** Names (''"FW de Klerk"'', ''"GB Whiteley"'', ''"Park JS"''). A notable exception is ''[[The Economist]]'' which writes ''"Mr F. W. de Klerk"''.
** Scientific units (see Measurements below).
* Acronyms are often referred to with only the first letter of the abbreviation capitalized. For instance, the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] can be abbreviated as ''"Nato"'' or ''"NATO"'', and [[Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome]] as ''"Sars"'' or ''"SARS"'' (compare with ''"[[laser]]"'' which has made the full transition to an English word and is rarely capitalised at all).
* Initialisms are always written in capitals; for example the ''"British Broadcasting Corporation"'' is abbreviated to ''"BBC"'', never ''"Bbc"''. An initialism is also an acronym but is not pronounced as a word.
* When abbreviating scientific units, no space is added between the number and unit (<nowiki>100mph, 100m, 10cm, 10°C</nowiki>). (This is contrary to the SI standard; see below.)

==== Miscellaneous and general rules ====

* A doubled letter appears in abbreviations of some Welsh names, as in [[Welsh language|Welsh]] the double "l" is a separate sound: "Ll. George" for (British prime minister) [[David Lloyd George]].
* Some titles, such as "Reverend" and "Honourable", are spelt out when preceded by "the", rather than as "Rev." or "Hon." respectively. This is true for most British publications, and some in the United States.
* A repeatedly used abbreviation should be spelt out for identification on its first occurrence in a written or spoken passage.<ref>[[Gary Blake]] and [[Robert W. Bly]], ''The Elements of Technical Writing'', pg. 53. New York City: Macmillan Publishers, 1993. {{ISBN|0020130856}}</ref> Abbreviations likely to be unfamiliar to many readers should be avoided.