5 ms·

The New York Times style guide recommends periods after the letters if you pronounce the letters individually. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym#Pronunc

• wmf 14y ago
  And yet they write "AOL" in this article.
  • mbreese 14y ago
    That's because the company's name is AOL, Inc.[1], and not an abbreviation. It doesn't have anything to do with the pronunciation. AOL used to be known as America Online, but when it bought Time Warner, the new company was called "AOL Time Warner"[2]. The Times also writes "I.B.M." instead of IBM, because it is officially "International Business Machines". They also used to write "A.T.&T." for "American Telephone and Telegraph" [3], but now write "AT&T" when AT&T changed their name to the former acronym. [1] http://www.google.com/finance?q=AOL http://www.google.com/finance?q=AOL [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/11/business/media-megadeal-overview-america-online-agrees-buy-time-warner-for-165-billion.html http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/11/business/media-megadeal-ov... [3] (google-cache) http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ByumNxycOjwJ:www.nytimes.com/1990/07/01/business/equipment-drags-on-at-t.html%3Fpagewanted%3Dall%26src%3Dpm+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ByumNxy...
    • sliverstorm 14y ago
      Don't you hate it when people pick standards, and then actually stick with them?
• tokenadult 14y ago
  And that's why the New York Times writes "I.Q." when the whole world of psychology writes "IQ" without any periods.