"Acronyms are abbreviations formed by the first letters or components of a word or phrase. They make life easier as a long term can be condensed into a short term that's easier to pronounce and write. No one likes to say or write "cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy", but it's no problem to say "CADASIL". Similarly, there are a number of commonly used non-medical abbreviations (e.g., i.e., etc.) that one can assume all readers are familiar with (see accepted abbreviations)."
"Acronyms are abbreviations formed by the first letters or components of a word or phrase. They make life easier as a long term can be condensed into a short term that's easier to pronounce and write. No one likes to say or write "cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy", but it's no problem to say "CADASIL". Similarly, there are a number of commonly used non-medical abbreviations (e.g., i.e., etc.) that one can assume all readers are familiar with (see accepted abbreviations)."
"It can be tempting to abbreviate longer terms for repeated use in the remaining text ("convenience acronyms"). This practice is widely used in medical textbooks and journal articles, stemming in large part, from word count and page number limits. Unfortunately, acronyms reduce readability and comprehension, particularly when they are unfamiliar. Thus, since we don't need to worry about word length and readers often skip down to the middle of an article, we only use abbreviations or acronyms if they are widely known and used."
"Note: This is a topic of some contention and various style guides adopt different conventions. Please don't get upset by this. We have chosen this one as a common and simple option."
"Acronyms are written with the individual (usually capital) letters forming a word, without full stops (periods) separating the letters, e.g. CMV, and not C.M.V."
"the key exception to this, is for a few accepted abbreviations in which we stipulate that full stops are used, for example "e.g." (not eg), etc."
"correct: AMIs, MCAs, ELSTs"
"incorrect: AMI's, MCA's, ELST's"
"correct: SOSs"
"incorrect: SOS's, SOSes"
"Note: This is a topic of some contention and various style guides adopt different conventions. Please don't get upset by this. We have chosen this one as a common and simple option."
"If one were being pedantic, then actually most medical acronyms in English are initialisms, as they are pronounced as individual letters rather than a word (e.g. AMI is said "a-em-eye" and not "aimee"). NASA is an example of a true acronym as it is pronounced as a word "nasa" rather than "en-a-es-a". All that having been said, most folks are now using the term acronym for both, and if you are reading this you are probably not getting invited to many parties anyway, so best to let it go."
"Note: This is a topic of some contention and various style guides adopt different conventions. Please don't get upset by this. We have chosen this one as a common and simple option."
"If one were being pedantic, then actually most medical acronyms in English are initialisms, as they are pronounced as individual letters rather than a word (e.g. AMI is said "a-em-eye" and not "aimee"). NASA is an example of a true acronym as it is pronounced as a word "nasa" rather than "en-a-es-a". All that having been said, most folks are now using the term acronym for both, and if you are reading this you are probably not getting invited to many parties anyway, so best to let it go."
"If one were being pedantic, then actually most medical acronyms in English are initialisms, as they are pronounced as individual letters rather than a word (e.g. AMI is said "a-em-eye" and not "aimee"). NASA is an example of a true acronym as it is pronounced as a word "nasa" rather than "en-a-es-a". All that having been said, most folks are now using the term acronym for both, and if you are reading this you are probably not getting invited to many parties anyway, so best to let it go."
"incorrect: AMI's, MCA's, ELST's"
"incorrect: AMI's, MCA's, ELST's"
"incorrect: SOS's, SOSes"
"If one were being pedantic, then actually most medical acronyms in English are initialisms, as they are pronounced as individual letters rather than a word (e.g. AMI is said "a-em-eye" and not "aimee"). NASA is an example of a true acronym as it is pronounced as a word "nasa" rather than "en-a-es-a". All that having been said, most folks are now using the term acronym for both, and if you are reading this you are probably not getting invited to many parties anyway, so best to let it go."
"Acronyms are written with the individual (usually capital) letters forming a word, without full stops (periods) separating the letters, e.g. CMV, and not C.M.V."
Expected headings
"When to use acronyms"
"How to use acronyms/abbreviations"
"Acronym use in article titles"
"Pluralisation"
"Acronyms are abbreviations formed by the first letters or components of a word or phrase. They make life easier as a long term can be condensed into a short term that's easier to pronounce and write. No one likes to say or write "cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy", but it's no problem to say "CADASIL". Similarly, there are a number of commonly used non-medical abbreviations (e.g., i.e., etc.) that one can assume all readers are familiar with (see accepted abbreviations)."