Abbreviations

Use periods after abbreviations, except units of measurement:

Co., Mr., Etc.

Tsp, Cm, In

The current trend is not to use social titles and honorifics after the first reference. When using social titles and professional degrees, use periods with no spaces between letters:

Use p. and pp. only in parentheses.  Spell out pages for in-text references:
Turn to the chapter that deals with World War Two (pp. 162-85).
World War Two is discussed on pages 162 to 185.

All months of the year can be abbreviated, except for May.  When abbreviating months of the year and days of the week, be consistent.
Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. Jun. Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun.

There are some exceptions. 

• For months used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. Spell out stand-alone or with a year alone. For example, Oct. 1, 1999, was a Friday. January 2006 was wet.
• Do not abbreviate a month spelled out in the name of an organization.  For example, the November 17 anmesty group.

We do not recommend using contractions (can’t, won’t, etc.), except in quotes or titles where contractions are used as well as informal communications such as conversational style email, social media and student communications.

The University should always be called Saint Mary’s University, Saint Mary’s or the university when being referred to as a noun. It is acceptable to use the abbreviation SMU in an informal context not tied with academics, or when shortness is especially valued, such as in website navigation, but it should never be used otherwise.

Unless it is very well known to the audience (RCMP, CBC), spell acronyms out in full on the first occurrence.

Example:

“Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) run a variety of educational projects throughout the academic year.”

Do not use periods in geographical initialisms for example, BC, NS, PEI, US, etc. Spell out the names of provinces (and states) when they stand alone (for example, “The team will be attending a conference in New Brunswick.”). The name of a province may be abbreviated when it follows a place name (for example, Ottawa, ON).

Abbreviate social titles before full or last names, with periods.
              Dr., Rev.

Other titles should be spelled out:
              Professor MacDonald, Senior Lecturer John Baker