Abbreviations and acronyms

Use shortened forms of words or acronyms only to avoid lengthy repetition or where space is limited.

Use 'an' before acronyms if they start with a vowel sound. For example, 'an ASIO employee' but 'a UNESCO committee'.

• Punctuation
• Abbreviating place names
• Organisations
• Commonly used abbreviations

Punctuation

• University style is not to use full stops in acronyms.
• Where you abbreviate a word (ie use the first letter of the word, but not the last letter), place a full stop after the abbreviation. For example, 'para.' abbreviates 'paragraph'.
• Where you contract a word (ie use the first, last and sometimes other letters of a word), do not use a full stop. For example, 'St John' is the contraction of 'Saint John'.

Abbreviating place names

Spell out the names of Australian states, especially in documents for international readers, except where it would be cumbersome.

For frequent references to states, include abbreviations in parentheses after the first reference then use the abbreviations. Shortened forms are NSW, Vic, Qld, WA, SA, Tas, ACT, NT.

Use the United States and the United Kingdom (always with 'the' beforehand when spelt out) except in lists or tables or less formal documents, where US and UK can be used. US and UK can be used as adjectives.

Organisations

Spell out in full the names of organisations at first reference with the acronym following in parentheses, but only if there are subsequent references to the name.

Consider whether your audience is likely to be familiar with the acronym before using it. High school students, for instance, would be familiar with the term UAI (Universities Admission Index), but probably not with the term DEST (Department of Education, Science and Training).

Commonly used abbreviations

The following abbreviations can be used in headings, lists and tables where space is at a premium (for example website tabs and menus). Avoid using them in the body text of formal documents:

Also see a list of acronyms commonly used within the University.