The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-10-25
NUMBER 40.
ABBREVIATIONS.

The following rules, which we COZ
slider worthy of reproduction, are take
from THE Use and Abuse of Abbrevis
tons" compiled by Henry r. Boss, i
brarian of the Franklin Society library
Chicago.
l. Never employ an abbreviatiol
which is likely to obscure the meaning
OF a word or phrase, nor, except in rar
instances, one not recognized by com
mon usage.
any particular book or newspaper bt
uniform in it's application.
3. When the n lmes of the books oI
Scripture are specified with chapter and
verse, they should he abbreviated, as
"Gen. xii, 25;' Rev, VII, T." When
spoken of without reference to any par.
ticular passage, they should be spelled
ou', as, "rhe Revelation of St. John was
written at Patmos," etc.
4. The more common baptismal
names, if put in lists where saving Of
spac Is an object, may be printed with
such portions as will lead to true
knowledge Of them; but IN ordinary
reading matter, where names seldom
occur, they should be written in full.
Names Of women should, If possible,
be 90 given.
5, Titles OF honor and distinction.
when Immediately following name.
and represented by initials alone, are
always abbreviated, as, "Newtpn Bate
man, LII. D." Where the titles imme-
diately y precede the name, they are alsu
usually abbreviated, as, "Rt. R4v. Rob
ert Il. Clarkson," Gen. S A. HUI hut, "
etc. Where titles stand alone, they
should invariably be spelled out.
o. Nouns, accompanied by a number,
should usually he abbreviated, as, mo.
|, Art. 2, Sec. B." etc. II is the custom,
however, in the composition of laws,
constitutions of societies. etc to give
the noun in full the first time it occurs,
as 5 ction |, etc. ,abbreviating ii in each |
succeeding instance until new Article |
or Section | is reached. 1t would |
however, be bad taste to abbreviate |
either of the above or similar substan
tives when standing by themselves.
T. The names of towns, cities and |
places should not, if possible TO avoid it,
be abbreviated, The names of states
and kingdoms should also be given in
Fu'l, unless they occur IN tabular mat
ter or in geographical books, where
the contraciDns have been previously
Explained, or unless they immediately
'Ollow the names of cities. or other DO
ltIcal subdivisions, as, "Waukegan, H."
Boston, NJ IS. 'ec.
II is permissible-and even advo-
Gated by sume-o abbrevate the names
1f the months, except March, April, May,
June and July, when they stand in con
lection with the day of the month, ds,
Jan. l, 1873" but except ir newspaper
)r other work where space is great
or they are of very fire.
luent occurrence. it is much better thai
hey should be spelled out.
9. All words which when abbreviated
IRE shortened only one letter, should be
printed in full. Jb for job" y" and Jno
'or John" are obviously improper and
Exceptions should be
made, however, when the names occur
is signatures; in such cases it would be
advisable to print them as their owners
HrIts them.
10. In all cases where an abbreviation
of two or more initials, repre-
ienting as many words, a space, in ad-
iilion to the full point, should be placed
between them. With many printers
his is omitted, but without apparent
'eason.
II. The period or full point must be
Used after each abbreviatiOn; but when
m abbreviation ends sentence. only
)ne period is required to mark the eli
sion and the pause, but any other point
It rtquired by the construction of the SEN
-ence should be inserted after the period.
In books printed in Edinburg, and in
most Euglish publications, the period is
after abbreviated words which
contain their last letters, as Mr., etc.
but this practice has never obtained TO
any considerable extent in America.
Such words as 1stly, 2dly, Svo. etc, are
not strictly abbreviations, for the figure
IN each instance represents the first por-
lion OF the word. When letters are used
as signs, or for references, they are not
lbbreviations, and shold not be pointed
rs such.
II. 1t is tha usual custom to put all
'bbrevRting initials in capitals. and this
should certainly be done in all cases
where the words, II unabbreviated,
would be capitalized. There is no rea.
son other than usage, however, for put
ing aniaoDreVlAllon IN capitals when the
word itself would be set in lower-case,
and the practice is gradually extending
'or the following, in this regard, the
,apitaliz tion or non capitalization of
he unabbreviated words Some print
ers use small capitals as being neater
han capitals, and more finished in ap.
than lower case. This, how
ever, compels the shifting OF the copy
from one side Of the case to the other,
and thus adds to the labor of compost
ion.
l3 Whenever it is necessary to alb
1reviate part Of sentence, the best
known word should be selected to bear
he shortening, as being the one most
likely to be understood
IA. Where possible to avoid it, ,abbre.
'iations should never be divided by
placing one initial in one line and car
'yiDg the other to the next.