SOME INDEFENSIBLE ABBREVIATIONS
When a sentence begins with the specification of a number, the spelled-out form should always be used, even if arabic figures are made to serve for other numbers in the same paragraph or sentence.[1]
Abbreviations like dept. or dep't, gov't, sec., sec'y, or sect'y, pres't, and treas. are indefensible in any kind of pamphlet work or job-work when they appear, as they usually do, in open lines with ample space. Even in hurried job-work abbreviations like these are damaging to the reputation of any printing-house. They often appear in the engraved headings of official letter-paper and in the display lines of job-printers, so made with intent to put many words in one line of large letters, in places where the words would have been clearer and more comely in two lines of smaller letters.
- ↑ This rule should not be applied to the figures that specify verses in the Bible or in hymn-books, which are not followed by a period. Nor can it be applied to the signs ¶ and § and which are sometimes used before figures to indicate paragraphs and sections. Exception also may be made for the figures that begin the short sentences under an illustration and that explain corresponding figures in that illustration, but abbreviations like Fig. 1 or E.g. at the beginning of a foot-note are unsightly: Figure 1 and Exempli gratia are acceptable. The improper use of abbreviations and arabic figuresfor words is more fully set forth in the chapter on Figures and Numerals. The exhibit of its absurdity here appended is taken from a letter to the Evening Post of New York City, in which the writer properly burlesques the carelessness of some compositors and proof-readers,
½ a lea., ½ a lea.,
Rode the 600.
½ a lea. onward
All in the valley of death
