In an earlier age, many initialisms used full stops between letters, particularly for organisation names. Today, initialisms are so common and readers so familiar with them that no full stops are needed.
Initialisms
An initialism is a shortened form made from the first letters of a phrase or series of words. Unlike an acronym, initialisms are pronounced letter by letter rather than as a single word. All of the letters in an initialism take a capital letter.
Style basics
Use all capitals, with no full stops
ATO
FYI
Plural and possessive forms
Treat an initialism as you would a standard word
The board has fired 2 CEOs this year.
The CEO’s office is being repainted.
The first point of confusion about initialisms is how to pluralise them. Just add a lower case ‘s’ to the end of the initialism. Don’t be tempted to use an apostrophe, because it is not a contraction.
The file documented 52 reported sightings of UFOs.
Save apostrophes for possessive forms, where you genuinely need to show ownership.
CSIRO’s research contributed to a vaccine for the disease.
First use
Spell out the term and put the initialism in round brackets
Office of Finance and Services (OFS)
In most cases, you should introduce an initialism when you first use it by:
- spelling the phrase out in full
- adding the initialism in round brackets.
In a long document, consider doing this for each chapter in case some readers have come directly into that part of the text. You might also want to include a reference list or glossary at the end of a report if there are a lot of initialisms that readers may be unfamiliar with.
We met with representatives from the Australian Medical Association (AMA) to discuss the aged care system. The AMA recently surveyed its members on their experiences.
However, if an initialism is so familiar that your readers will immediately understand it, you may not need to introduce it. For example, you shouldn’t need to spell out initialisms that:
- are common in your organisation, if you’re writing for an internal audience
- are in common use, such as ‘FYI’ or 'NSW'
- have over time replaced their spelt-out form, such as ‘IBM’.
Articles
Don't use a definite article ('the') before an initialism that is an organisation name or publication title
the ATO
ATO
the ASG
The ASG
Initialisms can feature heavily in government and corporate documents, where there can be confusion about using an article with an initialism in the way that you would for the fully spelt-out form.
However, the initialism becomes its own noun and in the case of organisations and publications does not generally need an article.
ASG advice is suitable for banks and insurance firms, ranging from ANZ and CBA to NIB and QBE.