MLA Abbreviations

Abbreviations in MLA are often used in the works cited list and in-text citations. They are rarely used in the text of academic writing.

Acronyms/ Abbreviations Used as Text

For economy in the text of academic writing, the first mention of an organization with a noted acronym must be spelled out completely with the acronym in parentheses. From that point on, it is acceptable to use the acronym instead. For example, "In a report by The Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) . . ."

Abbreviations of made of primarily of capital letters, do not use periods or spaces such as in AD, BC, PhD, DVD.

Initials used in the names of people use a period followed by a space for each initial (as in J. R. R. Tolkien), unless the name is entirely made up of initials (as in JFK).

Months

The names of months longer than four letters are abbreviated in the works cited list in the following way:

Jan. Apr. Nov.

Feb. Aug. Oct.

Mar. Sept. Dec.

State Abbreviations for the Works Cited List

Lower Case Abbreviations

• For single words, follow the abbreviation with a period: pp. ed. vol.

• For ones that represent multiple words, a period follows each letter with NO space: a.m. i.e. e.g.

Common Academic Abbreviations

anon. for anonymous

c. or ca. for circa

ch. for chapter

dept. for department

ed. for edition

et al. for multiple names (translates to "and others")

fwd. for foreword

jour. for journal

lib. for library

no. for number

P for Press (used for academic presses like MIT P)

p. for page, pp. for pages

par. for paragraph when page numbers are unavailable

qtd. in for quoted in

rev. for revised

sec. or sect. for section

ser. for series

trans. for translation

U for University (for example, Purdue U)

UP for University Press (for example, Yale UP or U of California P)

var. for variant

vol. for volume

Works of Shakespeare