Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Meeting; Second Refernces & Acronyms

Many of you referred to the Coalition for the Homeless, Inc. and the Grand Ledge City Council in first reference. And in most first cases, it's best to spell out the full title of an entity.

But how do you handle subsequent references?

You have a few options. One is to refer to the coalition or council in the generic, like I just did: as the coalition and council, lower-cased. Or you can call the former the homeless group, or whatever generic identifier is clearly in reference to such an organization.

A second option would be to consider using an acronym, if there is a common acronym for the group. An acronym is a word formed from the first letter or letters of a series of words, such as MSU (which is the acronym for Michigan State University).

If an acronym is well-known -- like NASA or FBI or USA -- then generally it is acceptable in a second reference, or even in a first reference.

This is where I'm going to refer you back to AP Style. Please carefully read and review the listing for abbreviations and acronyms.

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