Acronyms and abbreviations
Acronyms
Write the words in full the first time the term is mentioned, with the acronym in brackets immediately afterwards. Use just the acronym thereafter: Internet service provider (ISP); Quality assurance (QA) is carried out; The QA processes are documented in...
Use acronyms sparingly to avoid repetition of long terms-they are unnecessary for terms used only once.
Well-known acronyms such as Anzac, Qantas, BHP can be used alone.
Acronyms are not punctuated and take upper case: ATO not A.T.O; MOU not mou.
When spelt out, the related terms are not capitalised unless they are proper names: non-government organisation (NGO); Australian Height Datum (AHT).
Abbreviations and other shortened forms
Use a full stop when the abbreviation ends differently from the word: Dec., Mon., tel., etc. (abbreviation of etcetera), but: Dr, Mr, Qld, dept, Cwlth, Pty Ltd
Common abbreviations
- 10 am, 9.30 pm (space after numeral)
- e.g. not eg (full stops)
- i.e. not ie (full stops)
- et al. not et al-meaning and others (full stop, roman text)
Do not use an apostrophe when making shortened words and phrases plural by adding s: MPs not MP's; FAQs not FAQ's; 1960s not 1960's.
Symbols of measurement do not take full stops: ha, km, A$ and never take a plural s: 8 kg not 8 kgs).
Use the ampersand (&):
- in text when citing a work by joint authors in parenthesis, but use and when the authors' names are in the body of the text: This recent study (Lightfoot & Barry) indicates; This recent work by Lightfoot and Barry...
- in tables and figures for corporate and company names only.
Last updated 02 August 2005