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Hallo all. I have a bit of trouble with abbreviations, and I wonder if anyone could help. If so, many thanks indeed.

Abbreviations seem to be marked by a full stop more often in US than in UK English, and I had an article rejected for absence of the markers where I thought they were not needed.

I want to submit an article which includes the words Lab and Labs as short for Labrador(s)....

Should there be a stop after Lab? Should there be one after 'Labs'? And what about when the word comes at the end of the sentence: should there be two?

If I can't get certainty on this I will have to put in all the 'radors' instead which would be ok, but I would rather have the odd Lab....

And another thing.....Is it never acceptable in US English to start a sentence with 'And' or 'But''? To me that is ok in an informally written piece, but to avoid the pain of rejection I have been putting in things like 'however', 'yet', 'further' etc at the start of sentences, where I think 'and' or 'but' would read better. Anyone got thoughts?

Cheers, and all the best, IZ

I've never heard of putting a period/full stop at the end of common abbreviations like lab or vet. A sentence like "I took my lab to the vet, who tested him in a lab." should be perfectly acceptable. However, less common abbreviations may require a period/full stop, but I rarely see those even in highly technical formal documents. Initialisms and acronyms, on the other hand, are a very gray area. Is it FBI or F.B.I.? SCUBA or S.C.U.B.A.?

And for starting a sentence with a conjunction, it's typically seen more in informal writing but I don't believe there's any hard and fast rule against it (contrary to what English teachers may tell you). Web articles, like those sold here, are a little less formal in tone so starting with "and" or "but" should be generally acceptable as long as it's done properly. I think it's mostly a matter of how formal of a tone your target audience expects.

Yes both of those concur with what I would think. But I had a rejection for 'But' in an informal article. Also for the lack of a stop in another one, but can't remember what the word was....I'll try to check.

If it was an acronym then I will venture the lab, but if it was a straight abbreviation I will add the rador.
Thanks for that.

And, have you used and or but to start sentences without being rejected?

And....I have found the word that required a full stop, it was Mrs......

and, I have found the bit from Wikipedia that you referred me to last time, but this time it doesn't really give an answer:

'Americans tend to write Mr., Mrs., St., Dr.; the British will most often write Mr, Mrs, St, Dr, following the rule that a full stop/period is used only when the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last letter of the complete word. This kind of abbreviation is known as a contraction in the UK. The use of full stops/periods after most abbreviations can also be found in the UK, although publications generally tend to eschew the use of American punctuation. Unit symbols such as kg and Hz are never punctuated.'

so I think I'll play it safe.

Thanks

In an informal piece, Lab should never end with a period, even for the US style. I'm pretty sure CC uses the AP style guide, but it doesn't give any similar examples. It does say, however, that abbreviations shouldn't be used if the meaning of the word isn't clear. I would say, try to follow the AP rules for abbreviations mentioned there and avoid abbreviations of anything else. I don't think most clients would have a problem with them, but the editors here can be finicky.