Abbreviations in the UK

OK, I have found a guide that clarifies for me.    I was asking for clarification, not to lay down the law on anyone, so you can curb your nastiness.  Pardon my missing S in the line you quoted.

I also wouldn't use 'St.' as an abbreviation, but right the whole word.

Vicky

I also wouldn't use 'St.' as an abbreviation, but right the whole word.

For Saint, Street, or both?

I think periods are important. To me they distingush between acronyms (NASA) and initials (U.S.A.)/truncations (Fri.). The problem has gotten blured in recent years. The U.S. post office perfers no puncutation. The internet uses periods/full stops/dots to mean something else. Internet addresses of the form h.t.t.p//w.w.w.google.com. seem silly to me.

For Saint, Street, or both?

Exactly!  Okay for 'Saint', not for 'Street.'

I generally don't like truncations.

Vicky

I remember somewhere seeing the "rule" about not putting in full stops at the end of abbreviations which would end in that letter if written in full.  This would have been a British interpretation.  Seems too iffy -- you have to stop and think what is this an abbreviation for?  I prefer a rule which says all abbreviations must be followed by the full stop -- but then I suppose too many people would have to stop and think is this an abbreviation or a real word?   

I also wouldn't use 'St.' as an abbreviation, but right the whole word.

Vicky

write on!

Some UK style guides:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/about-us/style-book (Mixture - for example i.e. vs Dr, Mr)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide (Abbreviations under A)

http://www.bbctraining.com/pdfs/newsstyleguide.pdf has a section headed Americanisms... which summarises some differences in language use.  It doesn't particularly touch on written style. I think there may be another one that does which I haven't found.

write on!

Grrrrrr!

I hate you!





Vicky

This practice of placing dots after contractions of titles such as Mr and Dr had its origin in handwriting and printing conventions. It is not really a grammar issue. In the 17th century or thereabouts, the dots were called suspension marks, and were placed under, not after, the (small) last letter of the contraction. Later it was considered more convenient to place them after, and since approximately the end of World War II, in British English at least, it is considered convenient to leave them out altogether. Such is progress.

Regarding initialisms, full stops are somewhat more often placed after each initial in American English (e.g., U.S., U.S.S.R.) than in British English (e.g., US, USSR); however, for acronyms that are pronounced like words (e.g., NATO), full stops are omitted in American English.

Posted by: BostonDiner

I remember somewhere seeing the "rule" about not putting in full stops at the end of abbreviations which would end in that letter if written in full.  This would have been a British interpretation.

This was a British import, now largely disregarded, of the French rule that a period only follows an abbreviation if the last letter in the abbreviation is not the last letter of its antecedent: "M." is the abbreviation for "monsieur" while "Mme" is that for "madame". 

Some people follow a rule that an abbreviation, a word shortened by cutting off its end part, takes a period, but a contraction, a word with the middle left out, does not. Thus Dr James Smith Jr studied Eng. Lit. at college.

Thanks for those, Cabbage!

This is only slightly related, but I've been noticing how acronyms are not all-capitals in the UK, as they are in the US (ie NASA is Nasa, at least in the Guardian).  It used to drive me nuts, but I'm getting more go with the flow.   I'll be marking papers next year, so I guess I'd better learn these differences quickly!

Well, I was raised to use them in the US...but, after working in office environments for many years, I learned that whatever the office format is, is the correct way, and that consistency is most important.  Where I work now, here in the UK, I don't see full stops being used in abbreviations, whereas where I used to work, all abbreviations had full stops...

So much of common usage and acceptance has changed over time.  Take written addresses as an example.  In the early part of the 20th century the norm in Britain was to punctuate and indent like this:

Mr. J. Smith,
   23, Acacia Ave.,
      Somewhereton,
          Anywhereshire.

Gradually the indentation fell out of favor, and the commas after the house number and at the end of each line have all but disappeared. 

The use of punctuation with some abbreviations can lead to cumbersome-looking constructions when multiple abbreviations are used, e.g. V.H.F./U.H.F. or v.h.f./u.h.f. can tend to look rather clumsy, at least in monospace print.   The longer the abbreviation, the quicker it seems that the periods have been dropped, or never adopted widely in the first place.  DSLAM would soon become awkward if printed as D.S.L.A.M. several dozen times throughout an explanation.

This is only slightly related, but I've been noticing how acronyms are not all-capitals in the UK, as they are in the US (ie NASA is Nasa, at least in the Guardian). 

That's something I dislike.  Words derived as acronyms such as laser and maser are fine, since the individual words providing the initials do not need to be capitalized. When NASA is written out in full as the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, however, who would not use capitals for the first letter of each word?   That being the case, it should always be NASA in my opinion, not "Nasa."   

So much of common usage and acceptance has changed over time.  Take written addresses as an example.  In the early part of the 20th century the norm in Britain was to punctuate and indent like this:

Mr. J. Smith,
   23, Acacia Ave.,
      Somewhereton,
          Anywhereshire.

Gradually the indentation fell out of favor, and the commas after the house number and at the end of each line have all but disappeared. 

Yes! This is what I remember being taught in school in 1960's England, both the indentation and all those full stops and commas.