Abbreviation
This is the shortened or contracted form of a
word or phrase. Frequently used abbreviations or
contractions include don’t (do not), can’t (can
not) and haven’t (have not). Children need
careful teaching about the difference between
possessive apostrophes and those used to indicate
contraction. Sometimes the abbreviation
becomes a word in its own right, for example
pub, plane or fridge, and in these cases the apostrophe
has been dropped. Other abbreviations
are acronyms like SAT (standard assessment test)
and NATE (the National Association for the
Teaching of English). Useful abbreviations of
Latin terms include: e.g. for example (exempli
gratia); i.e. that is (id est); etc. and so on (et
cetera); N.B. note especially (nota bene).
Acrostic
This describes a poem or puzzle where the first
letter of each line, read sequentially down the
page, spells out a word or phrase. In a double
acrostic, the first and last letters of each line spell
out a word or phrase.
