ABBREVIATIONS.

TYPES OF ABBREVIATIONS.
ACADEMIC VOCABULARY:
NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, VERBS
(TENSES, VOICES, FORMS),
ADVERBS, ARTICLES,
PREPOSITIONS,
CONJUNCTIONS.
 ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviations are an important and
expanding feature of contemporary
English, widely used for convenience
and spacesaving. Students need to be
familiar with general and academic
abbreviations.
 TYPES OF ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviations take the form of shortened words, acronyms or other
abbreviations, as shown below.

(a) Shortened words are often used without the writer being aware of the
original form.
‘Bus’ comes from ‘omnibus’, which is hardly used in modern English.
However, ‘refrigerator’ is still better in written English than the informal
‘fridge’.
‘Public house’ is now very formal (‘pub’ is acceptable), but ‘television’ or
‘TV’ should be used instead of the idiomatic ‘telly’.

(b) Acronyms are made up of the initial letters of a name or phrase (e.g. AIDS
= Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). They are pronounced as
words.

(c) Other abbreviations are read as sets of individual letters. They include
names of countries, organisations and companies (USA/ BBC/ IBM), and
also abbreviations that are only found in written English (e.g. PTO means
‘please turn over’).
Note that in many cases abbreviations are widely used without most
users knowing what the individual letters stand for (e.g. DNA, DVD).
 SOME COMMON ABBREVIATIONS
AGM annual general meeting
CV curriculum vitae
further education (non-
FE university study above 18)
BA Bachelor of Arts BSc Bachelor of Sciences
DIY do-it-yourself EU European Union
GM genetically modified GNP gross national product

higher education information and

human resource
HE (university study above HRM management
ICT communications
18) technology
International Monetary
IMF Fund LLB Bachelor of Laws MA Master of Arts

Postgraduate Certificate of
MSc Master of Science PG Postgraduate PGCE Education

PhD Doctor of Philosophy PLC public limited company PR public relations

Universities and Colleges
UCAS Admissions Service UG undergraduate UN United Nations

uniform resource locator

URL (website address)
VC Vice-Chancellor WTO World Trade Organisation

However, writers also employ more specialised abbreviations in texts, which are explained in
brackets on first use:
Starting from the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, it is argued that . . .
The Technology Readiness Index (TRI) was introduced by Parasuraman (2000).
 PUNCTUATION
There are many standard abbreviations that have a full stop after them to
show that it is a shortened form (lt. = litre).
Other examples are govt. (government), co. (company) and Oct.
(October).

With acronyms and other abbreviations there is no standard pattern for

using full stops, so both BBC and B.B.C. are used.

There is, however, a tendency to use full stops less. The important thing is to
employ a consistent style in your work.

DUPLICATE ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviations can be confusing.
PC, for example, may stand for ‘personal computer’ but also ‘politically
correct’ or ‘Police Constable’.

It is useful to be aware of these potential confusions.

A good dictionary should be used to understand more unusual

abbreviations.
 ABBREVIATIONS IN WRITING
Certain abbreviations are found in all types of academic writing. They include:

anon. nonymous (no author)

asap as soon as possible
cf. compare
ed. ed. editor/ edition
e.g. for example
et al. and others (used for giving names of multiple authors)
Fig. figure (for labelling charts and graphs)
ibid. in the same place (to refer to source mentioned immediately before)
i.e. that is
K thousand
NB. take careful note
nd. no date (i.e. an undated source)
op. cit. in the source mentioned previously
p.a. yearly (per annum)
pp. pages
PS postscript
re. with reference to
 ACADEMIC
VOCABULARY
To read and write academic
texts effectively students need
to be familiar with the rather
formal vocabulary widely used
in this area
NOUNS
ADJECTIVES
VERBS. PAST FORMS
VERBS. PRESENT FORMS
VERBS. FUTURE FORMS
STATE VERBS
HAVE GONE (TO) / HAVE BEEN (TO)
USED TO/ BE USED TO/ GET USED TO/
WOULD
PASSIVE VOICE
ADVERBS
ARTICLES
 PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions are generally short words such as

‘by’ or ‘at’ which are often linked to nouns,
verbs and adjectives. Their use may seem
confusing, but this unit explains how they can
be understood. Students should consult a
standard English grammar for a full list of
prepositional combinations.
Prepositions of time
Prepositions of place
Prepositions of place
Other prepositions
 CONJUNCTIONS

Conjunctions are words or phrases which join

parts of a sentence together, or link a sentence to
the next one.
Effective reading and writing requires clarity
about their meaning.
Conjunctions have three basic formats:
• single word
for example: and, but, because, although
• compound (often ending with as or that)
for example: provided that, as long as, in order that
• correlative (surrounding an adverb or adjective)
for example: so...that

Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join.
Subordinating conjunctions usually come at the beginning of the subordinate clause.

A coordinating conjunction joins parts of a sentence (for example words or

independent clauses) that are grammatically equal or similar. A coordinating
conjunction shows that the elements it joins are similar in importance and structure.
There are seven coordinating conjunctions:
and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so.

A subordinating conjunction joins a subordinate (dependent) clause to a main

(independent) clause.
Here are some common subordinating conjunctions:
after, although, as, because, before, how, if, once, since, than, that, though, till, until,
when, where, whether, while.