Abbreviations
Q. I hope you can resolve a dispute between me and my editor. After introducing an acronym, e.g., “Bureau of Land Management,” to “BLM,” I like to drop the “the” in introducing it. For example, I think the least awkward way is to say “BLM is charged with the oversight of . . .” as opposed to “The BLM is . . .” Do you have any rule that covers this issue? Answer »
Q. Do you recommend the use of BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era) instead of BC and AD? Has the debate about these been settled or is it still in flux? Answer »
Q. We want to know the usage of “etc.” at the END of a sentence, that is, as the last word of a sentence. Is it spelled out? Answer »
Q. How should we handle file extensions like PDF (portable document format, an Adobe Acrobat file)—lowercase, preceded by a period, or all uppercase? Other examples are GIF and JPG (or JPEG). Answer »
Q. In running text, what is the preferred way to write “Washington, D.C.”? Answer »
Previous Page | Next Page
