Abbreviations, contractions and acronyms

Što veće znanje skraćenica posedujete, lakše ćete da razumete engleski jezik. Pored toga, akronimi predstavljaju važan element jezičke obuke.

Abbreviations

These are formed by removing letters from the word's end:

  • Medical Sciences ⇒ Med Sci
  • Doctorate of Philosophy ⇒ DPhil
  • ante meridiem ⇒ am
  • post meridiem ⇒ pm

Never place a full stop following any abbreviation.

Contractions

These are created by leaving out letters from a word's middle:

  • Mister ⇒ Mr
  • Doctor ⇒ Dr
  • The Reverend ⇒ The Revd
  • Saint ⇒ St

Acronyms

These are formed using the opening letters of words (regardless of whether the result can be pronounced as a single word or is read letter by letter):

  • British Broadcasting Corporation ⇒ BBC
  • Master of Arts ⇒ MA
  • Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ⇒ AIDS
  • Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences ⇒ MPLS
  • Planning and Resource Allocation Committee ⇒ PRAC
  • Pro-Vice-Chancellor ⇒ PVC

When an acronym might be unfamiliar to readers, write its complete form at first mention, with the acronym in parentheses following it; subsequently, use the acronym alone:

  • The Planning and Resource Allocation Committee (PRAC) made the decision. Throughout every term, multiple PRAC sessions take place.

Street

Whether 'St' is considered an abbreviation or a contraction, do not place a full stop after it:

  • Saint Ebbe's Street ⇒ St Ebbe's St

Specific abbreviations

People’s initials:

  • separate each initial with a space (such as J R R Tolkien, C S Lewis)

Measurements:

  • when discussing large numbers in text, it is fine to use k/m/bn as shorter ways of spelling out 1,000/1,000,000/1,000,000,000 (or writing out “one thousand”/”one million”/”one billion”) as long as you are consistent throughout the document

Names of universities:

  • qualifying organizations in qualification lists may use shortened forms when the institution is clearly recognizable: Camb, Oxf, UCL etc. Choose English names over Latin ones, since not all institutions have a Latin equivalent (for instance Oxf instead of Oxon)

Latin abbreviations:

  • when using Latin abbreviations, ensure you know their meaning and when to apply them (and do not use full stops after them)
  • eg [exempli gratia] – means "for instance"; use with examples that are not exhaustive (and do not precede with a comma): Oxford offers many language courses, eg Russian, French, Spanish [these are some, but not all, of the available language courses]
  • ie [id est] – means "in other words"; use with definitions or lists that are exhaustive (and do not precede with a comma): Catch a Blackbird Leys bus, ie numbers 1 or 5 [those are the only buses serving Blackbird Leys]
  • ibid [ibidem] – means “the same”; use when making a subsequent reference/citation to a publication or other source mentioned in the immediately preceding note (ie no references to anything else have appeared in between): For a fuller explanation of telepathy, see Brown [Speaking with the Mind, Chicago (1945) p 125]; also in Brown is further information on cats and telepathy [ibid, p 229]

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