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Write out both the full version and the abbreviation at first occurrence

When introducing a new name in an article, it is good practice to use the full name on its first occurrence, followed by the abbreviated form in parentheses. For example, ✔The New Democratic Party (NDP) won the 1990 Ontario election with a significant majority (first mention of New Democratic Party in the article), and ✔The NDP quickly became unpopular with the voters (subsequent mention).

Initial capitals are not used in the full name of an item just because capitals are used in the abbreviation.

Incorrect	(not a name):	✘We used Digital Scanning (DS) technology
Correct:		✔We used digital scanning (DS) technology
Correct	(name):	✔produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

If the full term is already in parentheses, use a comma and "or" to indicate the abbreviation; for example, ✔They first debated the issue in 1992 (at a convention of the New Democratic Party, or NDP).

Plural and possessive forms

Acronyms and initialisms are pluralized by adding -s or -es as with any other nouns (✔They produced three CD-ROMs in the first year; ✔The laptops were produced with three different BIOSes in 2006). As with other nouns, no apostrophe is used unless the form is a possessive.

Periods (full stops) and spaces

Acronyms and initialisms are generally not separated by full stops (periods) or blank spaces (✔GNP, ✔NORAD, ✔OBE, ✔GmbH); many periods and spaces that were traditionally required have now dropped out of usage (✔PhD is preferred over ✘Ph.D. and ✘Ph. D.). Periods are not used in units of measurement (see Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (dates and numbers) for more information).

Truncated (✔Hon. for ✔Honorable), compressed (✔cmte. for ✔committee), and contracted (✔Dr. for ✔Doctor) abbreviations may or may not be closed with a period; a consistent style should be maintained within an article. A period is more usual in American usage (✔Dr. Smith of 42 St. Joseph St.); no period is commonly preferred in British and other usage (✔Dr Smith of 42 St Joseph St, although one or other ✔St might take a period, in such a case). Some British and other authorities prefer to drop the period from truncated and compressed abbreviations generally (✔XYZ Corp, ✔ABC Ltd), a practice favored in science writing. Regardless of punctuation, such abbreviations are spaced if multi-word (✔op. cit. or ✔op cit, not ✘op.cit. or ✘opcit).

✔US and ✔U.S.

In American English, ✔U.S. is the standard abbreviation for "United States"; ✔US is becoming more common and is standard in other national forms of English. In longer abbreviations incorporating the country's initials (✔USN, ✔USAF), periods are not used. When the United States is mentioned along with one or more other countries in the same sentence, ✔U.S. or ✔US can be too informal, and many editors avoid it especially at first mention of the country (✔France and the United States, not ✘France and the U.S.). In a given article, if the abbreviated form of the United States appears predominantly alongside other abbreviated country names, for consistency it is preferable to avoid periods throughout; never add periods to the other abbreviations (✔the US, the UK and the PRC, not ✘the U.S., the U.K. and the P.R.C.). The spaced ✘U. S. is never used, nor is the archaic ✘U.S. of A., except in quoted materials. ✘U.S.A. and ✘USA are not used unless quoted or as part of a proper name (✔Team USA).