Use Initials Article For Free

A or an before acronyms But remember that even the spoken form of a consonant can begin with a vowel sound (e.g., [em] for M, [aitch] for H). Acronyms beginning with a consonant sound use ?a.? Acronyms beginning with a vowel sound use ?an.?

As other answerers have observed, acronyms (like UNESCO) generally do not take a definite article and initialisms (like UNHCR) generally do. However, there are a number of exceptions to this rule?especially instances where initialisms appear without a definite article.

Abbreviations should only be used if the organization or term appears two or more times in the text. Spell out the full term at its first mention, indicate its abbreviation in parenthesis and use the abbreviation from then on, with the exception of acronyms that would be familiar to most readers, such as MCC and USAID.

Your paper should include a list of abbreviations at the beginning of each of the following segments: heading, abstract, text, and figure/table legends. A common rule of thumb is to write all non-standard abbreviations in their entirety on their first appearance both in abstracts and papers themselves.

When an indefinite article is needed immediately before an abbreviation, the pronunciation of the abbreviation determines whether 'a' or 'an' should be used. 'A' is the correct choice before abbreviations beginning with a consonant sound, including a vowel pronounced as a 'w' or 'y' sound.

Don't end acronyms and initialisms with a full stop Don't place a full stop after the acronym or initialism. The exception is if the shortened form ends a sentence and isn't followed by another punctuation mark.

You definitely can use abbreviations in academic writing if you keep the following rules in mind! Spell out the full phrase or term the first time you use it in your paper and include the abbreviation in parentheses. You can use the abbreviation each time after that. Don't abbreviate everything.