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August 22, 2000
ABBREVIATIONS--Part II
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Last week we began a series on abbreviations. This week we continue our study by looking at acronyms and initialisms.
Abbreviations represent the shortened versions of commonly used words, such as "Mr." for "Mister" or "St." for "Street." Initialisms are formed from the first letters in a group of words, such as "CIA" for "Central Intelligence Agency," and they are pronounced letter by letter. Initialisms usually are written without periods.
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Acronyms form words made from initialisms, such as "NATO" for "North Atlantic Treaty Organization." They are pronounced as words and most do not take periods. To ensure that readers understand the initialism or acronym, spell it out the first time it's used and place the abbreviation within parentheses immediately afterward:
Joan's son works for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
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Names of places, such as states, countries, and continents, should be abbreviated only in postal addresses. Company names should not be abbreviated (except Co. for company, Inc. for incorporated, or Ltd. for limited), nor should fields of study (i.e., Eng. = English or Engineering?). All street references are written out except in postal addresses:
place (She lives at 2741 Geneva Place.)
boulevard (The doctor moved her practice to Stinson Boulevard.)
parkway (The vet's office is located at 13 Helmes Parkway, near the video store.)
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In formal or professional writing, spell out measuring units such as meters, gallons, or feet. Symbols such as #, =, or @ should not be used in formal papers but can be used in technical and scientific documents such as charts, graphs, or e-mail.
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SPELLING OR WRITING TIP
For non-native speakers of English, using an English as a Second Language (ESL) dictionary may be more helpful than a regular dictionary. ESL dictionaries use the international phonetic alphabet rather than English phonetics. Additional grammar information is provided with the entries and also in a separate grammar section. Here are two to look for:
AMERICAN HERITAGE ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE DICTIONARY (1998)
LONGMAN DICTIONARY OF IDIOMS (1998)
In addition, several on-line sites offer ESL assistance. An on-line search will help you find useful sites.
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NEW WORD OF THE WEEK:
ex-cru-ci-at-ing (adjective) Very painful.
The child's scalp injury was excruciating.
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YOUR GRAMMAR AND WRITING QUESTIONS
QUESTION: Is the following punctuated correctly:
Management advised the impact on the divestment of PT Media to the Company will be significant, since the Company can produce the news material internally.
GRAMMARCHECK: We need to know more before we can comment with certainty. If written as part of an in-house document (one circulated within the company, not outside it), the statement is generally correct, except for adding the relative pronoun "that" after "advised" and replacing the preposition "to" in the first clause with "on" as follows:
Management advised that the impact on the divestment of PT Media on the Company will be significant since the Company can produce the news material internally.
The word "Company" (which refers to the specific company in question) can remain capitalized if the full company's title was given earlier in the document and readers understand it is that entity to which "Company" refers.
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QUESTION: How should this sentence be punctuated for clear understanding? When should you use a single apostrophe rather than a double with a quotation?
"The student said 'I don't understand punctuation'," reiterated the teacher.
Also, in the following sentence, would you capitalize any words?
They were men of the church.
We'll see you at the church party.
Thanks. Dave.
GRAMMARCHECK: Your first example is nearly correct. Here's what we would change:
"The student said 'I don't understand punctuation,'" reiterated the teacher.
To answer your question, double apostrophes are used for direct quotes and single apostrophes are used for a quote-within-a-quote, such as the above. Remember that commas always are placed within single and double quotation marks.
In your second question, the sentences are correct; no words need to be capitalized unless "church" refers to a specific church's name (which it probably doesn't).
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QUESTION: How do you write compositions?
GRAMMARCHECK: There are as many answers to this question as there are teachers. Generally, compositions include an introduction, a body, and a conclusion and are developed around a specific theme, often called a "thesis" in academic circles. Several paragraphs, each with its own topic sentence developed by details and examples, contribute to the development of the main idea. The introductory paragraph "hooks" the readers' attention and introduces the main idea, the body of the paper develops it, and the concluding paragraph summarizes or restates the principal idea. Aristotle said that a great idea should both teach and entertain, so those are often the twin goals of essay writers.
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QUESTION: I know something is wrong with the following sentence, but I cannot put my finger on it:
The skirmish escalated attracting the attention of every person in the vicinity.
GRAMMARCHECK: The sentence requires a comma to separate the main clause from the dependent clause:
The skirmish escalated, attracting the attention of every person in the vicinity.
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QUESTION: In response to Debi's question in last week's issue, I also remember learning the rule about not beginning a sentence with a coordinating conjunction (such as "but" or "however"). I also think the rule was amended (or perhaps clarified) in the later grades. I think the reason for the first rule was to prevent us from creating sentence fragments by mistaking a natural pause between clauses for a sentence break.
GRAMMARCHECK: Your explanation makes sense. We've encountered several writers who mentioned learning a similar rule, so evidently something along those lines was taught a few years ago. Readers, be careful when beginning a sentence with a coordinating conjunction (and, or, so, yet, but, for) to ensure that you create a complete statement and not a dependent clause!
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QUESTION: What features do spoonerisms have?
GRAMMARCHECK: THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE defines "spoonerism" as "an unintentional transposition of sounds in spoken language, as Let me sew you to your sheet (for 'Let me show you to your seat'). [After William A. Spooner (1844-1930), English clergyman, noted for such slips.]"
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QUESTION: I've got an article in English but English is my second language, which I'm not totally confident in. Are there any proof reading services that you can provide me with? For your information, I'm just a student and not financially well equipped. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.
GRAMMARCHECK: No inconvenience, but we do not know of any editing services that provide low-cost proof-reading. Readers, we welcome recommendations.
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QUESTION: I need a list of words that are the same but have a different meaning. My daughter has a learning disability and one of her major problems is that she can only give one meaning to a word. She is only nine. Where can I get a list or any material to help me to help her? My written English is not good, as my first language is Spanish, but my daughter's first language is English.
GRAMMARCHECK: In this week's "Spelling Tip" we recommend a couple of books that could be helpful for your daughter. A renewed interest in spelling has resulted in several updated grammar books being published recently. Check your local library or book store for a text that includes homonyms.
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