Abbreviations and acronyms

Abbreviations and acronyms formed from initial letters

Do not use full stops in acronyms and abbreviations formed from the first initials of separate words:

CEO not C.E.O. 

Abbreviations formed by cutting off word ends

When you form abbreviations by cutting off the ends of words you need a full stop:

Editor becomes Ed.

There are very few instances where you would need to do this on the website. This rule might be relevant to references and social media.

Abbreviations formed by contracting words

When you form abbreviations by contracting words you don't need a full stop:

Department becomes Dept

There are very few instances where you would need to do this on the website. This rule might be relevant to references and social media.

Australian states and territories

Spell out the names of Australian states and territories when they're used as a noun. You can use the appropriate abbreviation when they're used as an adjective:

New South Wales is experiencing a bad flu season.

The NSW Government has just announced its flu vaccination program.

E.g., i.e., etc

Don't use abbreviations such as e.g. and i.e. in body copy:

Write 'for example' not e.g.

Write 'that is' not i.e.

Write 'and so on' not etc

The exception is when these abbreviations are used in character restricted fields and social media.

See also the spelling list.

Contractions

Do use contractions like won't, doesn't, don't, can't, isn't and so on.