- The AP Stylebook gives details on what should and should not be abbreviated, and individual items are noted with abbrev. if it’s correct style to abbreviate. Please consult. In general, though, avoid alphabet soup. Don’t use abbreviations and acronyms unless they are well known.
- Be careful not to identify groups, clubs, associations, companies and so on by a list of initials. Pick a key word out of the group’s title and use that on second reference.
- Wrong: I am hoping to attend a conference of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC). The JACC sponsors twice-yearly workshops and contests designed especially for 2-year journalism students.
- Right: I am hoping to attend a conference of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges. The association sponsors twice-yearly workshops and contests designed especially for 2-year journalism students.
- A few abbreviations and acronyms are so well known at City College that it’s OK to use them any time. UCSB and UCLA are among these. Some campus-based groups are fairly well known. For these, write out on first reference, and abbreviate on second ref.
| First Reference | Second Reference |
| Helping Others Through Peer Education | Project HOPE |
| Extended Opportunity Programs and Services | EOPS |
| Disabled Student Programs and Services | DSPS |
| Multimedia Arts and Technologies Program | MAT |
| English as a Second Language | ESL |
Examples:
- Students in the Multimedia Arts and Technologies Program have produced a video about computers. This is the first time anyone from MAT has done this.
- She plans to transfer to UCSB next year.
- Collective nouns take singular verbs and singular pronouns. Problems with collective nouns haunt campus newspapers because of all the groups we cover.
- Common collective nouns include: council, board, senate, group, class, committee, club, crowd, faculty, family, group, jury, orchestra, herd, staff.
- Sports writing is especially tricky. Team, squad, pair, offense, defense, line, City College, Los Angeles, San Francisco are all collective nouns. Players, Vaqueros, Lakers and 49ers are all simply plural.
- The committee is meeting today to set its agenda.
- The horticulture class is planting native oaks today for its final.
- The offense rallied to its best effort in the third quarter.
- The Lakers gave Southern California an exciting season with their post-season play.
- Players are expecting another good year, with their fans squarely behind them.