Punctuation and Capitalization
Acronyms and Initialisms
Units of Measurement
Personal Names and Titles
Company Names
Other Terms When in Parentheses, Tabular Material, or Documentation
Courses of Study
Geographical Locations
Postal Abbreviations
Dates and Time
Months and Days
COURSES OF STUDY
Avoid clipped forms (such as poli set, psych, soc, and econ) tor courses of study.
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS
Generally, spell out geographical names (except for multiword names such as United States of America ). Spelling out such names avoids possible misunder-standing and makes reading much easier. The following list includes some common geographical abbreviations.
N.E., NE Northeast
Blvd. Boulevard
S.W.SW Southwest
Ct. Court
U.K. United Kingdom
Dr. Drive
U.S.A. United States of America
St. Street
Ave. Avenue
POSTAL ABBREVIATIONS
The U.S. Postal Service specifies the following abbreviations for states and protectorates in postal addresses.
Alabama AL
Montana MT
Alaska AK
Nebraska NE
Arizona AZ
Nevada NV
Arkansas AR
New Hampshire NH
California CA
New Jersey NJ
Colorado CO
New Mexico NM
Connecticut CT
New York NY
Delaware DE
North Carolina NC
District of Columbia DC
North Dakota ND
Florida EL
Ohio OH
Georgia CA
Oklahoma OK
Guam GU
Oregon OR
Hawaii FII
Pennsylvania PA
Idaho ID
Puerto Rico PR
Illinois IL
Rhode Island RI
Indiana IN
South Carolina SC
Iowa IA
South Dakota SD
Kansas KS
Tennessee TN
Kentucky KY
Texas TX
Louisiana LA
Utah UT
Maine ME
Vermont VT
Maryland MD
Virginia VA
Massachusetts MA
Virgin Islands VI
Michigan Ml
Washington WA
Minnesota MN
West Virginia WV
Mississippi MS
Wisconsin WI
Missouri MO
Wyoming WY
The names of the Canadian provinces and territories are abbreviated as follows. (The first abbreviation given for each is the one specified by the U.S. Postal Service.)
Alberta AB or Alta.
British Columbia BC or B.C.
Manitoba MB or Man.
New Brunswick NB or N.B.
Newfoundland NF or Nfld.
Northwest Territories NT or NWT
Nova Scotia NS or N.S.
Ontario ON or Ont.
Prince Edward Island PE or PEI
Quebec PQ or Que.
Saskatchewan SA or Sask.
Yukon Territory YT
DATES AND TIME
The following abbreviations for periods of time are normally used in formal writing. Other words denoting units of time (for instance, second, minute, week, month, year, century) should be spelled out.
AD/A.D. anno Domini [after the beginning of calendar time; used before numerals— A.D. 1790}
BC/B.C. before Christ [before the beginning of calendar time; used after numerals—647 B. C. ]
BCE/B.C.E. before the common era [used instead of B.C. by writers who consider B.C.E. religiously neutral]
CE/C.E. common era [used instead of A.D. ]
a.m./A.M. ante meridiem (before noon)
p.m./PM. post meridiem (after noon)
EST/E.S.T Eastern Standard Time
MONTHS AND DAYS
Abbreviate months and days only in documentation and in tables and graphs.
MONTHS
January Jan.
February Feb.
March Mar.
April Apr.
May [not abbreviated]
June [not abbreviated]
July [not abbreviated]
August Aug.
September Sep. or Sept.
October Oct.
November Nov.
December Dec.
DAYS
Monday Mon.
Tuesday Tues.
Wednesday Wed.
Thursday Thurs.
Friday Fri.
Saturday Sat.
Sunday Sun.
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