Preferred Abbreviations for Online Writing

When I write an article, I want to be certain that abbreviations will mean the same to the majority of those who read the content. With recipes and states being prominent in my latest articles, I reviewed Place Names, found in Editing 101.

The lesson, which has some valuable advice about capitalization of words and abbreviations of places, helped me determine other things that would help the online writer. Following are guides for both state/territory and recipe common abbreviations that will help clarify how the name, word, or term should be used in online writing.

U.S. states, districts, and territories

In running text, spell out the state name. If an abbreviation is called for, use the traditional abbreviation, such as Ind rather than the postal IN for Indiana. This eliminates a group of capital letters in the same area.

Place Names has an excellent list of the state names, complete with traditional and postal abbreviations. Two additional places that are frequently in the news are Guam and Puerto Rico. Their traditional abbreviations are their complete names; the respective postal abbreviations are GU and PR.

Use these guidelines when referring to state names:

• For the U.S, capitol, use Washington, D.C., or District of Columbia. Wash. DC is acceptable when space is limited.
• Spell out the name of the state, if a city is not named with it.
• When citing a single city and state in the middle of a sentence, spell out the state name and insert a comma: The sun beat mercilessly in Phoenix, Arizona, yesterday afternoon.
• Use traditional state abbreviations in a list of cities and states. If an abbreviation consists of two parts (such as N.J. and W.Va.), do not a space after the first period. Some state names, such as Alaska, are never abbreviated in text.
• When space is limited, abbreviate the state name, even if it is preceded by a city, using the traditional abbreviation. If space is extremely tight, postal abbreviations will do.
• Use postal abbreviations in addresses.

Recipe Abbreviations
Following is a list of words that are commonly used in recipes, with the acceptable abbreviation(s) opposite each word. Note that some abbreviations have all capital letters. The period normally following the abbreviated word is generally not used. My opinion is this came about because recipes used to be written out quickly, with as few extra strokes as possible.

teaspoon (t, tsp)
tablespoon (T, Tbsp)
cup (c, C)
pint (pt)
quart (qt)
gallon (gal)
minute (min)
hour (hr)
dozen (doz)
ounce (oz, OZ)
pound (lb, #)
package (pkg)