Chicago Manual of Style, Rule 6.10 13th ed.
"Abbreviations with periods, lowercase letters used as nouns, and capital
letters that would be confusing if s alone were added form the plural with an
appostrophe and an s:
Ex.: Ph.D's, SOS's
but see, Rule 6.9:
"So far as it can be done without confusion, single or multiple letters used
as words, hyphenated coinages used as nouns, and numbers (whether spelled out
form by plural by adding s alone.
Ex. CODs and IOUs !!!
Now see GPP Style Manual, 1984 --- Rule 8.11
"an apostrophe is used to indicate ... the coined plurals of letters, figures,
and symbols>"
Ex.: OK's, Btu's, RIF's ...
Now, if CD-ROM is for Compact Disk - Read Only Memory an abbreviation without
periods with capital letters and also hyphenated, is it:
CD-ROMs or CD-ROM's?
Anyway, have to go read my e-mail's (hyphenated coinage used as a noun, but is
it a verb, and is e an abbreviation for electronic??)
Alan
<---- Begin Included Message ---->
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 16:21:05 -0700
From: "McKeever, Kent" <mckeever@lawmail.law.columbia.edu>
Reply-To: mckeever@lawmail.law.columbia.edu
Sender: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Using the apostrophe to pluralize
To: jcjanes@ucdavis.edu
I can't cite a source, but I thought it was traditionally
proper to use the apostrophe to form the plural of
abbreviations. I wonder if our acronym-laden professional
jargon has made that seem awkward?
--Kent
(mckeever@lawmail.law.columbia.edu)
<---- End Included Message ---->
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Alan D. Sugarman Federal Appeals on Disc tm CD-ROM
President Opinions of US Court of Appeals
1993 to Date - All Circuits
HyperLaw, Inc. ®
P.O. Box 1176
New York, NY 10023
sugarman@hyperlaw.com 212-787-2811 212-496-4138(fax)
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