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From the OWL resource MLA Formatting and Style Guide
Abbreviations in MLA
There are a few common trends in abbreviating that you should follow when using MLA, though there are always exceptions to these rules. For a complete list of common abbreviations used in academic writing, see Chapter 7 of the MLA Handbooks for Writers of Research Papers.
Do not use periods or spaces in abbreviations of all capital letters, unless it is a proper name:
US, MA, CD, HTML
P. D. James, J. R. R. Tolkein, E. B. White
NOTE: This also applies to PhD and EdD even though there is a lower case letter in the middle.
Use a period if the abbreviation ends in a lower case letter, unless referring to an internet suffix, where the period should come before the abbreviation:
assn., conf., Eng., esp.
.com, .edu, .gov (URL suffixes)
Use periods between letters without spacing if each letter represents a word in common lower case abbreviations:
a.m., e.g., i.e.
Exceptions: mph, os, rpm, ns (among many others)
Categories of Typical Abbreviations:
- Time designations: Jan., Thurs., yr., sec.
- Geographic names: AK, Ger., No. Amer., USA
- Scholarly abbreviations: abbr., anon., ex., i.e.
- Publishers names: Cambridge UP, Harper, McGraw, SIRS
Abbreviations in Citations
Citations should be as condensed as possible, so you should know the basic rules of abbreviation endorsed by the MLA to concisely provide your readers with reference information.
Remember to follow common trends in abbreviating time and location within citations:
- Month names longer than four letters used in journal and magazine citations: Jan., Sept., Nov.
- Geographic names of states and countries in book citations when the publisher's city is not well known or could be confused with another city: Logan, UT; Manchester, Eng.; Sherbrooke, QC
Shorten publisher's names as much as possible in book citations. You only need to provide your readers with enough information for them to identify the publisher. Many publishers can be identified by only acronyms or a shortened version of their names.
MLA suggests a few rules for you to follow when abbreviating publishers:
- Omit articles, business abbreviations (like Corp. or Inc.), and descriptive words (e.g. Press, Publishers, House)
- Cite only the last name of a publisher with the name of one person (e.g. Norton for W. W. Norton) and only the last name of the first listed for a publisher with multiple names (e.g. McGraw for McGraw-Hill)
- Use standard abbreviations when possible (e.g. Assn. or Soc.)
- Use the acronym of the publisher if the company is commonly know by that abbreviation (e.g. MLA, ERIC, GPO)
- Use only U and P when referring to university presses (e.g. Cambridge UP or U of Chicago P)
Here is a short list of publisher abbreviations that you might use. Consult Chapter 7 of the MLA Handbook for a more complete list.
- Acad. for Educ. Dev. (Academy for Educational Development, Inc.)
- Gale (Gale Research, Inc.)
- Harper (Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc. & HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.)
- Little (Little, Brown and Company, Inc.)
- MIT P (The MIT Press)
- NCTE (The National Council of Teachers of English)
- SIRS (Social Issues Resources Series)
- UMI (University Microfilms International)