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Use of abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, italics and quotation marks

Rules and guidelines to avoid the most frequent writing errors.

“An abbreviation is the graphic representation of one or more words with fewer letters than those that form them: etc. (and so on); art. (Article); chap. (chapter). They are preferably used in bibliographies, notes and tables, but as little as possible in the body of the text.

"In Spanish, all abbreviations have a period."

Acronym

Acronyms are words formed by the juxtaposition of the initials (or more letters) of a set of words. Their meaning should be made clear the first time they appear in a text.

According to their formation, they are classified as proper (only the initials of significant words) and improper or acronyms (more than one letter of some words, or initials of some article or preposition).

They can be written with upper and lower case:

• The acronyms (Conaprole, Mides).
• Acronyms of four letters or more (UNICEF, UNESCO).

Acronyms are written without periods and do not mark the plural. ISBNs; four NGOs. Although in the oral language they tend to take a plural mark ([oenejés] = 'non-governmental organizations'), they are invariable in writing: the NGOs; For this reason, when you want to refer to several referents, it is advisable to introduce the acronym with determiners that indicate plurality: Representatives of some/several/numerous NGOs met in Madrid. The use, copied from English, of making the plural of acronyms by adding a lowercase s at the end, preceded or not by an apostrophe, should be avoided: CD's, NGOs.

Siglonyms are the acronyms that have become part of the common lexicon. These are written in lower case and admit the plural: IUD (intrauterine device); SMEs (small and medium enterprises).

Symbols

They consist of the representation of a word or phrase with one or more letters, uppercase or lowercase, or a sign. The symbols are independent of languages ​​and are usually established by an international institution. The writing of the symbols is invariable. They do not have a point, or accents, or mark the plural.

The most used symbols are:

• Those of the international system: m (meter), kg (kilogram), ha (hectare), K (kelvin), s (second), Å (angstrom).
• Those of the cardinal points: S, SW, NNE.
• Those of the chemical elements: O, Hg, Na, C.
• Those of the currencies: $, €, £.

They are written in italics (italic):

• The titles of books (essays, narrative, poetry, theater, comics, etc., both published and unpublished) and newspapers (daily, weekly, magazine, issue): The Name of the Rose, Death of a Salesman, Asterix in Hispania, The Daily.
• The titles of all kinds of artistic works (painting, sculpture, music, cinema): Mozart's Requiem, Van Gogh's Sunflowers, The Lives of Others.
• The titles of radio and TV programs: In perspective, Stop suffering, Lost.
• The proper names of ships, planes, spaceships, trains, etc.: the Santa Maria, the Graf Spee, Apollo XI.
• The nicknames, aliases and nicknames when they accompany the name: Obdulio Varela, the Black Boss; Daniel Muñoz (Samson Carrasco); Bond (Paul David Hewson); Ernest Che Guevara. They go around when the full name is not mentioned: Che Guevara, Palito Ortega, the Black Boss, the Iron Lady, Bono.
• The scientific names of plants and animals: Myocastor coypus (otter), Butia capitata (butiá palm tree).
• Words and expressions in foreign languages: the commedia dell'arte, the centreforward, menu à la carte.
• Neologisms, slang or intentionally misspelled words: It's not metal but wood.
• The words and phrases that the author wants to highlight: This configures a crime, neither more nor less.
• The metalanguage (the words when they refer to themselves and not what they mean): I don't think conspiracy is the appropriate term.

They are written in full and without quotation marks:

• The names of institutions, companies, buildings, places, etc., both in Spanish and in foreign languages: the National Academy of Letters, the Elbio Fernández School, the Emporio de los Sándwiches, the Peluffo-Giggens Foundation, the Mediomundo conventillo, the Bar Tabaré, the Memorial to the Disappeared, the Center Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Via Veneto, Central Park, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Globe Trotters, the Vasco da Gama.
• The names of artistic groups, in any language: El Peyote Asesino, Pink Floyd, Les Luthiers, the Black Theater of Prague, the Bolshoi.
• Brands of all kinds: a Marlboro, a White Horse, a Fiat Uno, a Hewlett Packard, a Levi's.
• Latin words and expressions in common use: a priori, a posteriori, per capita, ad hoc, sic, idem, sui generis, grosso modo, motu proprio, ex profes(s)o”.

They are written in quotes:

• Verbatim quotes.
• The parts of a work: articles, chapters, poems, movements and the words used in a critical or ironic sense.