Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. What the heck is an initialism? hitcher grammar Nice article, should be useful enough. Dave just to comment on your comment, Hg is mercury, that's an abbreviation only in science not of English. http://ultrareview.net http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=20831#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=20831#Comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:40:04 GMT Technology News grammar Thats some nice tips on grammar and pronunciation. But its more of with American English than the UK version. There is huge difference in both of them. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=20830#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=20830#Comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:37:58 GMT GRAYWOLF grammar Just to pick nits... 1) all acronyms are initialisms, but not all initialisms are acronyms. 2) Acronyms are made from the first letter of a string of words but are pronounced as if they were words themselves. If it uses more than the first letter, it is a portmanteau. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=19582#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=19582#Comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:28:12 GMT Chris Cannon grammar I have question regarding the capitalization of letters for the first time an abbreviation is mentioned. The word in question is "distributed constraint optimization", which is a type of artificial intelligence technique used to solve distributed problems. The abbreviation commonly used is DCOP (pronounced dee-cop). At first glance, it is difficult to tell where the P comes from, so in this case, would it make sense to capitalize the letters in the first mention (Distributed Constraint OPtimization)? This abbreviation is also potentially misleading as the abbreviation "DCOP" is usually followed by the word "problem". Therefore, one might assume the "P" in DCOP stands for "problem", but really it is the "P" in "OPtimization". I understand that this is an extreme edge case, but I have to write this word fairly often. Thanks, Chris http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=19280#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=19280#Comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:18:47 GMT Sharyn grammar Do you capitalize all the letters in an initialism or do you follow the capitalization of the term? For example, would "Date of Birth" be DIB or DoB? Thanks! http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=18617#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=18617#Comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:26:22 GMT Charlene grammar I want to know what it is called when you have an initialism type abbreviation, but you only always pronounce the full word. The only two examples I can think of are BBQ and NIN. Everyone always says Bar-be-cue and Nine Inch Nails, and never Beebeecue and Nin, as in rhymes with tin. So what is that called? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17801#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17801#Comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:00:32 GMT Bob grammar I just received a fiscal year-end missive from an executive vice president. It was broadcast to almost all of the company chocked full of acronyms and initialisms. Honestly, I have no idea what half of the email was about. I spent 20 years in the military and we lived on acronym soup. Be we were also hardcore about the First Mention rule. I wish that was the case where I work now. we have over 70,000 employees and I know I can't be the only one scratching my head over this email. Thanks for Grammar Girl. I truly enjoy the podcasts. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17688#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17688#Comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:56:09 GMT NINER grammar I am a Policy Writer for a state agency with a name similar to the Department of Social Services, which is commonly initialized as D-S-S. I am currently working on a project to update our correspondence documents. I have found many instances where, after the first mention being spelled out with the abbreviation in parentheses, the agency is later refered to as "DSS" rather than "the DSS." For example, a sentence might read "Please contact DSS if you have any questions" or "Notify DSS of any changes immediately." When speaking, it is common for our employees to refer to our agency as "DSS," without preceding it with "the," however in written correspondence my understanding is that the word "the" should be included, since DSS is an initialism, not an acronym. It sounds better to say "Please contact the Department of Social Services if you have any questions," rather than "Please contact Department of Social Services if you have any questions." Some of my colleagues feel that "the" is not needed because they incorrectly refer to "DSS" as an acronym. Please share your thoughts. Thanks. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17643#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17643#Comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:20:31 GMT judy grammar is there a rule of thumb for how many times an industry jargon word appears in the text before we should use an acronym or initials? Thx http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17608#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17608#Comments Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:23:02 GMT ES grammar If you end your sentence with an initialism that has a period after each initial, would you still place an additional period to end the sentence? For example, "I live in the U.S.." How about question or exclamation marks? "Do you live in the U.S.?" or "I love living in the U.S.!" http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17374#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx?commentid=17374#Comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:42:00 GMT Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:40:04 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronym-grammar.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us