Abbreviations

Using abbreviations such as e.g., etc. and i.e., are considered too informal for academic writing. Your teachers would prefer if you integrated those ideas more seamlessly into your sentence structure.

* When one activity has become tiresome, (e.g. writing an abstract essay on a specious theme), we find something else to do momentarily until our interest is sufficiently replenished. * Note: The red asterisks mean this is an example of poor writing.

Here is a better attempt:
When one activity has become tiresome, (such as writing an abstract essay on a specious theme), we find something else to do momentarily until our interest is sufficiently replenished.

(PS: Sentence adapted from a 3rd year philosophy of religion essay)

Good abbreviations in academic writing:
et al. means and the others and you should use this abbreviation in your referencing. Another abbreviation that is sometimes used is ibid. meaning [from] the same place but be careful; not all lecturers acknowledge this as sufficiently formal, and it is not an APA referencing convention, so check with each of your lecturers before using it.

Unlike acronyms (which make a new word by taking letters from several words) abbreviations are words made by removing some of the letters from one original word. Most of us develop our own personal abbreviations as a time-saving-measure, and likewise different fields of study develop their own accepted abbreviations. Some examples are Prof. (Professor), corp. (corporation), ed. (edition), sq. (square). In most academic writing you will use these sparingly.

Helen Clark's husband is Dr. Peter Davis. He first met Ms. Clark at university in the 1970s.

The Rt. Hon. Jim Bolger was formerly chancellor of the University of Waikato.

There will be a book signing by Prof. Ken Ring, founder of Predictions Are Us Ltd.

It was traditional practice to place a full stop after a word to show it had been abbreviated. This is still good practice and is common in US English, but in Britain and New Zealand we tend to avoid using the full stop after words which have their first and last letter in the abbreviation. For example, we make Mr. by taking the M and r from Mister. So, no full stop needed. Other examples are Doctor (Dr), Mistress (Mrs.), or again Mistress (Ms.), Association (Assn).

Helen Clark's husband is Dr Peter Davis. He first met Ms Clark at university in the 1970s.

There will be a book signing by Prof. Ken Ring.

The Rt Hon. Jim Bolger was also head of KiwiRail.

If you are unsure about this, it is safest to place a full stop beside all abbreviations (like the Americans do).