Lots of abbreviations in my novel. Should I format them with periods?
Examples:
L.A. or just LA?
P.A. or just PA?
S.U.V. or SUV?
And so on.
Examples:
L.A. or just LA?
P.A. or just PA?
S.U.V. or SUV?
And so on.
Formatting Question: L.A. or LA?
- Thread starter Brett Marie
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Pick a source and go with what they use. Merriam-webster.com is a good one, but any will do. (They don't have a listing for L.A.)
My preference did not match my publisher's. They wanted LA, for instance, when to me that's the two-letter abbreviation for the state of Louisiana, and L.A. is the city in California. We also disagreed often on which compounds are two words, which are hyphenated, and which are joined.
Ultimately what you want to do is pick a style and use it consistently. The trend with most of the books I read seems to be toward omitting the periods in common abbreviations like the ones you use as your examples. You probably want to use all caps and a lower-case s for plurals, too: I checked the SUVs in the LA parking lot and announced the results over the PA system.
Maryn, whose edits were daunting
My preference did not match my publisher's. They wanted LA, for instance, when to me that's the two-letter abbreviation for the state of Louisiana, and L.A. is the city in California. We also disagreed often on which compounds are two words, which are hyphenated, and which are joined.
Ultimately what you want to do is pick a style and use it consistently. The trend with most of the books I read seems to be toward omitting the periods in common abbreviations like the ones you use as your examples. You probably want to use all caps and a lower-case s for plurals, too: I checked the SUVs in the LA parking lot and announced the results over the PA system.
Maryn, whose edits were daunting
My impression is that UK/Commonwealth style guides lean towards LA/PA/SUV, whereas US style guides prefer L.A./P.A./S.U.V.
Have a look at books in the market you want to sell to and see what they use.
Have a look at books in the market you want to sell to and see what they use.
I explicitly preferred LA for Los Angeles in my book because L.A. looks wrong to me (not wrong wrong, but contextually wrong -- I live here, and LA is what I use and mostly what I see everyone else use in business names and region names and the like...although maybe we're just lazy and don't like writing two extra dots 
).
If you're trade publishing, chances are your editor will have a house style, and you can go with what they say (no one is going to reject an ms based on this being different, so for your submission draft you can just pick what you like and stick to it -- just be consistent). Since I'm self-publishing, "LA" instead of "L.A." was one of the things I listed as a specific preference on my reference guide for my editor.
).If you're trade publishing, chances are your editor will have a house style, and you can go with what they say (no one is going to reject an ms based on this being different, so for your submission draft you can just pick what you like and stick to it -- just be consistent). Since I'm self-publishing, "LA" instead of "L.A." was one of the things I listed as a specific preference on my reference guide for my editor.
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FWIW, I can tell you that, absent use in dialog, most folks in Louisiana notice the L.A./LA faux pas generally as only a mild annoyance that hints at inattentive writing and might merit a modest eye-rolling sigh or sad smile... ;-)
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PA is an official two-letter state abbreviation for Pennsylvania, so it should be PA. Same for LA, if it refers to Louisiana. If it's for Los Angeles, you could write it L.A., but most people who live there have been calling it LA for so long that the letters are used without periods. The term "SUV" has also entered the popular lexicon, so I think it's fine to have them referred to in this manner in a work of fiction. It's how your characters would likely think of and use these terms.