Abbreviations, Acronyms and Initialisms

General 

Abbreviations should help the reader. They should be easily understood; they should not be used needlessly. If an abbreviation occurs only once or twice, it is best to dispense with it altogether and use the full form. 

AbbreviationS

Acronyms

Initialisms

THE INITIALISM 'UT' IS NOT PRECEDED BY 'THE'

Contractions

Truncations

Using Abbreviations and Acronyms

Abbreviations that do not originate from English 

If, after repeated use of the full English description followed by the Dutch acronym, the Dutch acronym becomes clear for your reader, then use your judgement and consider using the standalone Dutch acronym. Clarity first.

ABBREVIATING DUTCH DIPLOMAS AND DEGREES (IN ENGLISH)

When referring to the abbreviated terms for the various stages of the Dutch educational system, we recommend you use the following formatting, in terms of abbreviations, supporting definitions, use of italics, and capitalisation: 

        There are two types of higher education in the Netherlands: research-oriented and profession-oriented:

        Research-oriented education (wetenschappelijk onderwijs, WO) is traditionally offered by research universities.

        Higher professional education (hoger beroepsonderwijs, HBO) is offered by universities of applied sciences (hogescholen).

       Senior general secondary education (HAVO) and pre university education (VWO)

       HAVO and VWO prepare pupils for higher professional education (HBO) and university studies, respectively.  

Indefinite article ‘a’ or ‘an’ before acronyms

Ampersands (&)

ABBREVIATING ACADEMIC TERMINOLOGY (GENERIC EXAMPLE)

The following example/recommendation is provided in response to a direct question from a user of this style guide. The question was about how to abbreviate, capitalise, spell and hyphenate (or not) the following term: 

The official 'Abbreviation list' for UT is available online: 

www.utwente.nl/abc 

Reference List

European Commission English Style Guide - A handbook for authors and translators in the European Commission Eighth edition: January 2016. Last updated: July 2023 "[PDF File]" https://commission.europa.eu/system/files/2023-07/styleguide_english_dgt_en.pdf

University of Oxford Style Guide. "[PDF File]" Retrieved from https://www.ox.ac.uk/public-affairs/style-guide?wssl=

 Ontario Training NETWORK. Grammar Tip – The With Acronyms and Initialisms. Retrieved from https://ontariotraining.net/grammar-tip-the-with-acronyms-and-initialisms/

NUFFIC De Nederlandse organisatie voor internationalisering in onderwijs. Retrieved from https://www.nuffic.nl/en/subjects/education-in-the-netherlands/#