In British English, parentheses within parentheses are more acceptable. Several prestigious organizations (e.g., National Institutes of Health ) supported the initiative.Several prestigious organizations (e.g., National Institutes of Health (NIH)) supported the initiative.When you want to enclose a set of parentheses inside another set, most style guides recommend using square brackets for the inner element. If you do use two sets of parentheses, put a space between them. The results were sorted by gross domestic product (GDP Odin, 2018).Ĭhicago also advises this approach, but allows side-by-side parentheses if their content is entirely unrelated.Style guides disagree about whether it’s okay to place two (or more) parenthetical asides side by side.ĪPA style recommends using a single set of parentheses with a semicolon separating the main elements. APA also allows abbreviations that appear as words in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary to be used without explanation (IQ, HIV, RNA, CIA, UNESCO).Sometimes you might need to use two parenthetical elements together-for example, when a sentence contains both an acronym and a citation. When abbreviating a term, use the full term the first time you use it, followed immediately by the abbreviation in parentheses.Īccording to the American Psychological Association (APA), abbreviations are best used only when they allow for clear communication with the audience.Įxceptions: Standard abbreviations like units of measurement and states do not need to be written out. There are a few common trends in abbreviating that you should follow when using APA, though there are always exceptions to these rules. You should not overuse abbreviations (writing is easier to understand when words are written out) you should also not underuse abbreviations (in general, if you use an abbreviation, it should appear at least three times in your paper, because fewer uses mean it is more likely your reader will forget what the abbreviation refers to). In APA, abbreviations should be limited to instances when a) the abbreviation is standard and will not interfere with the reader’s understanding and b) if space and repetition can be greatly avoided through abbreviation. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style can be found here. Note: This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.
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