FWIW: More on Using Acronyms in Legal Writing

An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the first letter of each word of a title. Good legal writing lends itself to the use of acronyms because their use can make a document shorter without sacrificing clarity. Here are some tips on using acronyms in your writing.

• Use acronyms to define terms and nouns you frequently use in your brief (e.g., the New York City Police Department (NYPD))
• Common acronyms don’t need periods (e.g., FBI)
• Quotation marks are not needed to set out the acronym; thus, Alpha Beta Company (“ABC”) becomes Alpha Beta Company (ABC)
• If you insist on using quotation marks, and the acronym is preceded by “the,” don’t put the quotation marks around the “the”; thus the Office of Court Administration (“the OCA”) becomes The Office of Court Administration (the “OCA”)
• When used as adjectives, acronyms need not be defined in the text: “U.S. Constitution”
• Any article before the acronym must suit the acronym, not the original term; thus “a New York University Student” but “an NYU student”
• Use an article before an acronym in your text only when the acronym, if written in full in a sentence, calls for an article
  • Add “the”: “I work for the FBI,” not “I work for FBI”
  • Delete “the”: “I went to NYU,” not “I went to the NYU”