In newswriting, abbreviate the following and note
the examples of each:
Time zones, aircraft and ship designations,
distress calls, military terms, and so forth
Examples: EDT, MiG-17, SOS (but May Day),
USS John F. Kennedy, SS Virginia.
Business firms
Examples: Warner Bros., Brown Implement Co.,
Amalgamated Leather, Ltd. If “and” is in the firm
name, use the ampersand (&). Examples: Sims
& Sons, AT&T.
Street, avenue, boulevard and terrace in
addresses when using a numerical prefix, but not
point, port, circle, plaza, place, drive, oval, road
or lane
Examples: 30 E. 28th St. (single “E” with
period), 16 Quentin Ave. NW (no periods in
“NW”), 27 Sunset Blvd., but Main Street, Fifth
Avenue, and so forth
Versus to read vs. (with period)
Example: The case of Johns vs. New York.
Most states when used with cities, towns, bases,
Indian agencies and national parks
Examples:
Examples: He is a former U.S. Olympic
champion. She is a member of the U.N.
Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). While visiting the
United States, she toured the United Nations
Building in New York. “When last I was in the
U.S.A., the U.N. was in its infancy.”
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Names of provinces and territories are set off
from community names by commas, just as the
names of U.S. states are set off from city names
Example: They went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on
their vacation.
United Nations and United States when used as
adjectives, but spell them out when used as
nouns. In texts or direct quotations, U.S.A., U.S.
and U.N. maybe used as nouns
All religious, fraternal, scholastic or honorary
degrees, and so forth, but lowercase when spelled
out
Examples: J. J. Jones earned his bachelor of
science degree at Princeton. J. J. Jones, Ph.D.,
will be guest speaker at 2 p.m. tomorrow.
Titles (and capitalize) Mr., Mrs., Mile., Dr., Prof.,
Sen., Rep., Dist. Atty., Gov., Lt. Gov., Gen.,
Supt., and so forth, when they appear before
names but not after
Examples: He introduced Lt. Gov. J. F. Petty. J.
F. Petty, the lieutenant governor, will arrive at
10:15 a.m. In first and subsequent references and
in group names, use “Miss” before the name of
an unmarried woman and “Mrs.” before the name
of a married woman, or “Ms.” if preferred by the
individual. Example: Those attending were,
Miss Alice Jones, Mrs. Helen Jones and Ms.
Gladys Jones.
Months when used with dates, but spell out
otherwise
Example: The battle started Oct. 10, 1967, and
ended in January 1968. Abbreviations for months
are Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Do
not abbreviate March, April, May, June or July
except when used in tabular or financial routine;
then use Mar., Apr., Jun. and Jul. and spell out
May
Mount when referring to a mountain but spell out
when referring to a city
Do not abbreviate Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa,
Maine, Ohio, Texas or Utah. Never abbreviate the name
of states when they are used alone.
Examples: Mt. Everest, Mount Vernon, N.Y.
