Postal Abbreviations (minicast)

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Welcome to another mini-cast from A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

We’re still on summer hiatus, preparing for a new season in the fall, but in the meantime we’ve got some bonus content for you.

Steve called us from Fishers, Indiana to explain a P.U.

What is the deal with people using the two-letter postal code abbreviations for states? That is, why would someone use “IN” with no period to abbreviate “Indiana” instead of “IND” period?

Shouldn’t the postal abbreviations only be used for addresses? I’m curious as to what gets to you about it.

Is it just the visual? Is it an aesthetic thing? You don’t like the capital letters or you miss the period or what?

Well, I think partially it’s this sort of government agency has decided that they wanted this shorthand to help their mail go through quicker and it seems to have replaced what has always been traditional.

I can see that. And actually for a long time I felt exactly the same way.

They’re best used in conjunction with the city, which should provide more clarity there. If you’re using these standalone abbreviations without a city, that is the two-letter postal code abbreviations, you’re probably asking for confusion. AK, some people might believe is Alaska or Arkansas, for example.

But as I understand it, and I don’t have a copy of the Chicago Manual Style in front of me, that is the very latest edition, but the very latest edition of the CMS, as they call it, of the Chicago Manual Style supposedly says that the two-letter postal code abbreviations are now okay to use, whereas in previous editions, they preferred the longer abbreviations like the Associated Press has long espoused.

And the Chicago Manual Style is a pretty widely used guide for all variety of publications and writing and writers. So I’m not surprised that you’re seeing it more, Steve.

So Steve, it sounds like the government is influencing. Apparently I’m turning into a Luddite.

Well, no, here’s the thing, there is a certain… I believe, here’s the overall thing for me on this, and what changed my mind.

I use the two-letter postal codes when I’m sending email, when I’m doing instant messaging, when I’m sending text messages. But if I’m writing a piece of journalism, let’s say a newspaper column, or if I’m writing something professional, say a letter of recommendation for a colleague, which, you know, a due time and again, I use the longer abbreviations.

I’ve decided that there are two different styles here writing that I can follow. And there’s the more traditional formal one as I learned it, and then there’s the more modern one, which is for expediency.

Maybe that’s a practice that you could pick up. I suppose it is.

I work as a graphic designer, so a lot of time I see copy before it goes back to the client or goes to the press. So I have the opportunity to change little things like that sometimes, and I often do.

You do? Yeah.

And you get away with it? Well, I usually do, yes.

You know, I’ve worked in a variety of circumstances. I always felt that the graphic designers often had a better eye for those kinds of things because they were visually interested and not interested so much in the content and the message so much as they were as the look.

So if I worked where you work, I would welcome your oversight. Yeah, and I’m interested to learn that that’s your profession because I think there is something visual going on there.

The capital letters sort of are imposing, sort of governmental almost. Yeah, that’s true.

Don’t you think? Yeah, there’s something of the bureaucrat about them.

Right. Well, I’m surprised they haven’t eliminated the state abbreviations all together and just gone with the zip code.

The nine-digit zip code. Well, you know, you may well know this, but in hip-hop, it’s long been custom to use your area code as a representation of who you are and what your people are like.

Oh. What do you mean?

It’s like you might say, “I’m from the 212 or the 718 or the whatever,” meaning that that’s your area code. Right.

You know, that’s who you are. And you might actually have that on your shirt or your album or in your lyrics or wherever.

Right. 90210.

A little different. Yeah.

Well, Steve, I say go be subversive and make those changes when you can. I’m with you.

I’ll do that, and I’ll take out serial commas too. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, absolutely not.

Steve. Steve, let’s talk. No, listen to her.

She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know. Steve.

Go ahead. Steve, you don’t want to take out the serial comma really, do you?

You guys were setting me up for this, weren’t you? No, no.

This is an conspiracy. Come on.

Oh, Steve, you’re going to have to pry the serial comma out of my cold, dead fingers. I am sorry.

I am not giving up on that. She’s not going to stop, Steve.

Thanks for calling. Thank you so much for your call.

Okay. Thank you. Call us back sometime, and we’ll talk about that.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Thank you.

As I mentioned in the call, in its 15th edition, the Chicago Manual of Style says that the two-letter no-period state abbreviations may appear in any context where abbreviations are appropriate.

That puts the manual at odds with the Associated Press Stylebook and many others. It does also say, however, that many writers and editors prefer the older forms.

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For A Way with Words, I’m Grant Barrett in New York City.

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