Bailey.Academic_Writing

3.1 Abbreviations
1. Abbreviations are an important and expanding feature of
contemporary English.
They are used for convenience, and familiarity with
abbreviations makes both academic reading and writing
easier. Three main types can be found:
a) shortened words – photo (photograph)
b) acronyms – UNESCO
c) others – NB
a) Shortened words are often used without the writer
being aware of the original form. Bus comes from omnibus,
which is never used in modern English, but refrigerator
is still better in written English than the informal fridge.
Public house is now very formal (pub is acceptable), but
television should be used instead of the idiomatic telly.
b) Acronyms are made up of the initial letters of a name
or phrase (Aids = acquired immune deficiency syndrome).
They are read as words. The more official acronyms are
written in capitals (NATO), but others use lower case
(nimby). NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation,
which is a real body, while nimby stands for not in my back
yard, which is a concept.
c) Other abbreviations are read as sets of individual
letters. They include names of countries, organisations and
companies (USA/BBC/IBM), and also abbreviations which
are only found in written English (PTO = please turn over/
Rd = Road). Note that in many cases such abbreviations are
widely used without most users knowing the meaning of
the individual letters (e.g. DNA/DVD/ABS).
2. All academic subjects employ abbreviations to save time.
Examples from business/economics include:
GDP = gross domestic
product
PLC = public limited
company
IMF = International
Monetary Fund
PR = public relations
CEO = chief executive
officer
WTO = World Trade
Organization
3. There are many standard abbreviations found in some types
of writing which have a full stop after them to show that it is
a shortened form (St. = saint).
Other examples are govt. (government), co. (company) and
Oct. (October). With type (b) and (c) abbreviations there is
no standard pattern for using full stops, so both BBC and