Amanda Ehrhardt, MA, JAMA Network
Compared with navigating the treacherous waters of causal language, or throwing down the proverbial gauntlet against the terms renal and mutation, upholding AMA Manual of Style rules regarding abbreviations and when to expand them may seem like Not That Big of a Deal. If you had to plot the interquartile range for feelings surrounding this task, it may go something like this:
The median response toward expanding an abbreviation was “Meh” (interquartile range, “Yuck!” to “Yay!”).
However, one of the beautiful things about style rules is that they evolve and adapt with changes in cultural and societal outlooks and the editing process, and they occasionally throw you a colorful floatie while you’re swimming in copy.
That interquartile range that I’ve mentioned several times now? Well, check out the Common Abbreviations and Expansions table in the updated version of 13.11.
That’s right, it’s IQR! From beginning to end! No expansion necessary anymore!
So perhaps we should reassess that statement from the beginning?
The median response to learning that IQR no longer needs to be expanded was “Woohoo!” (IQR, “Cool.” to “Best thing ever!”).
change “longers” to “longer” — thx!