Shortened forms
There are several categories of shortened forms, which vary in their use of capital letters. We recommend minimising punctuation for all categories, so you will rarely need full stops to separate the letters. This makes your text cleaner and easier to read.
The first time you use a shortened form, you should usually introduce it in full. However, you might not need to do this for acronyms that have become words in their own right (such as ‘radar’) or terms that are common and well understood by your readers.
This entry summarises the shortened forms you will encounter. Each has its own more detailed entry, which you can link to below.
Abbreviations
A single word shortened to the first few letters but not the last
chapter
ch
March
Mar
Contractions
A word or words shortened to include the first and last letters but missing some in the middle
Doctor
Dr
we will
we’ll
Acronyms
A word formed from all of the first letters in a series of words, pronounced as a single word
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
Anzac
technical and further education
TAFE
Initialisms
A word formed from all of the first letters of a series of words, pronounced letter by letter
Australian Taxation Office
ATO
Symbols
A symbol used in place of a word, particularly for a unit of measurement
kilometre
km
and
&