Some acronyms are pronounced as words: FEMA for Federal Emergency Management Agency and NATO for North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

are two capitalized letters, e.g., AR for Arkansas, ME for Maine, and TX for Texas.Īcronyms are abbreviations formed from the initial letters of an expanded phrase and usually do not include periods: PR for public relations, CEO for chief executive officer, and BTW for by the way. Abbreviations for the names of states in the U.S. Other abbreviations are formed by omitting letters from the middle of the word and usually also end in a period: govt.

Some abbreviations are formed by omitting all but the first few letters of a word such abbreviations usually end in a period: Oct. The styling of abbreviations is inconsistent and arbitrary and includes many possible variations. Abbreviations may be used to save space and time, to avoid repetition of long words and phrases, or simply to conform to conventional usage. The first step is to find all the abbreviations in your document.An abbreviation is a shortened form of a written word or phrase. However, you can also use a combination of Microsoft Word and Excel to quickly generate a list of abbreviations. You can create a list of abbreviations manually by going through your work and noting each one down, then adding them all to a list at the start of your document. How to Create a List of Abbreviations in Microsoft Word If you are using one, you may also want to check your style guide for advice on defining abbreviations and how to list them. Define each abbreviation alongside its shortened form.List all abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms alphabetically.Appear early in the document, just after the table of contents.In cases like this, a list of abbreviations can work as a reference point for your reader, meaning they can look up any abbreviation in one place rather than having to find where it was introduced.

And they may be scattered throughout your writing. But in a longer document, you may use quite a lot of abbreviations. When introducing an abbreviation in writing, you will usually need to define it first. But how does a list of abbreviations work? And how do you create one in Microsoft Word? Let’s find out. And if so, you may want to add a list of abbreviations to help the reader. If you’re creating a large document, such as a thesis or business report, it could contain many abbreviations.

Short abbreviations for words