(Ray Saintonge
<saintonge(a)telus.net>)t>):
Andre Engels wrote:
I don't agree that there should be an article
on each such
abbreviation;
however, if there is no article, one should just
write out the
abbrevation
in almost all cases. I tend to write out
abbreviations like "etc.",
"i.e."
and "a.o." whenever they occur in an
article I am editing.
This is a sensible position. I would tend to make such changes in most
cases, but I would hope that eventually each of them does have an
article on Wiktionary. Of the given examples, I tend to leave "kg" and
"etc." alone, I have mixed feelings about "i.e." where most English
speakers would understand "id est" even less, and I don't know what
"a.o." means. I have to guess that it means "change it".
I never use abbreviations when they can be avoided. I also write out
"that is" and "for example" and even "and so on"; we are
not constrained
by the size limits of paper here. I suppose measurement units are hard
to avoid though, but even there I'd write "kilogram" if it was just an
isolated use in an otherwise non-technical article.