Shortened words' writing

[hleV]

I wonder what is the correct way or if there isn't one, which way you prefer writing shortened words?

Examples:

headshot:

• Way 1: HS;
• Way 2: HS (because there's no "of", "for" and other that kind of words);
• Way 3: hs. (depends on if the first letter of word is upper-case (Headshot would mean Hs) or not).

World of Warcraft:

• Way 1: WOW;
• Way 2 & 3: WoW.

laughing out loud:

• Way 1: LOL;
• Way 2: LoL;
• Way 3: lol (depends on if the first letter of word(s) is upper-case (Laughing out loud) or not).

as far as I know:

• Way 1: AFAIK;
• Way 2: aFaIK;
• Way 3: afaik (depends on if the first letter of word is upper-case (As far as I know) or not).

Need for Speed (I guess it's the same as World of Warcraft:

• Way 1: NFS;
• Way 2 & 3: NfS.

I myself prefer way 1, every letter is in upper-case, even if some of the words in it are "of", "for" and etc.
Note that this doesn't include words that are shortened down to less letters like argument - arg, command - cmd and etc.

BTW I'm asking not which way you usually write, but which way you think is correct or better.

 

[Zeonix]

Whats the difference between way 1 and way 2 for HS?

For World of Warcraft, WoW is correct.

For laughing out loud, they're all correct. Lol or lol applies more to a quiet laugh while LOL would be more of a loud laugh. Same thing goes for haha and HAHA. Caps makes everything louder.

For AFAIK, either go all caps or all lowercase. If you do a combination of both, it looks stupid.

NFS should be in all caps.

 

[hleV]

Whats the difference between way 1 and way 2 for HS?

For World of Warcraft, WoW is correct.

For laughing out loud, they're all correct. Lol or lol applies more to a quiet laugh while LOL would be more of a loud laugh. Same thing goes for haha and HAHA. Caps makes everything louder.

For AFAIK, either go all caps or all lowercase. If you do a combination of both, it looks stupid.

NFS should be in all caps.

WoW - o (of) in lower-case.
NFS - F (for) in upper-case.

Why?

 

[Zeonix]

Technically, you're supposed to make all prepositions lowercase in a title, but stylistically, it looks better when it's uppercase. At least in NFS' case.

 

[hleV]

I agree about NFS. But still I'd like to know what is the correct typing if there is one. So if you're writing a serious article or w/e (I'm not, it's just an example), you wouldn't write strange typing/mistakes like WoW & NFS. I wonder how does EA call "Need for Speed" in a shortened way.

 

[Zeonix]

If it were in title form, it'd be Need for Speed. When you turn it into an acronym, keep it NFS.

 

[Damaera]

Need for Speed has and always been NFS.

World of Warcraft has and always been WoW.

 

[hleV]

Also I'm curious about words which are made from 2, like headshot, Metamod and etc. Should they be writen as hs or HS & MM or Mm?

I was always writing them in all upper-case and didn't had a problem with that, but still am curious if it's correct or not.

And many people write WoW (though many people also write WOW) because it looks better but not because it's correct. Same with NFS.

As I said, I'm looking for a correct typing, not for which looks better.

 

[Zeonix]

When you're creating acronyms, the letters should always be capitalized. If not always, then, at the very least, 9 times out of 10.

 

[hleV]

@Zeo, plus oned.

Movie of the Month - MOTM/MotM? Gonna google for some info.

 

[Zeonix]

Capitalize them *****es. Alternating looks messy, and the person who does it probably doesn't know what they're doing.

 

[hleV]

Googled something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(capital_letters)

At the very beginning of the article I saw MOS, which means Manual of Style. ^^

So I guess I'll leave with my older opinion that it must be all capitalized. Even WOW, which looks better with WoW.

!!! DISCUSSION No.2 - COLONS

IMO colons in shortened version of title/words disappear.

Like Counter-Strike: Source - CSS and not CS:S/CS: S.
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch - HL2DM and not HL2M/HL2: DM/HL2 DM.
ESFOBF and not ESF:OBF/ESF: OBF.

What do you think?

 

[Deathshot]

Well CSS and CS: S are 2 different Things. CSS is a forum of Coding.

But I usually say HL2DM

 

[Almighty_Gir]

i shorten Natural Selection to; Eness

 

[Zeonix]

I use colons.

 

[Chakra-X]

USA isn't USOA or USoA, so by that format, World of Warcraft would be WW.

 

[hleV]

USA isn't USOA or USoA, so by that format, World of Warcraft would be WW.

Yes. In some cases words "if", "of", "for" (and other this-type words, acronyms maybe, not sure) are removed in shortened version.

 

[Damaera]

I make fun of foreigners when they make mistakes.

 

[Almighty_Gir]

I use colons.

Sign of a U.S. Marine, or so i've heard...

 

[Zeonix]

Better we use everyone else's than they use ours.