Punctuating abbreviated titles in American, British, and Australian dialects

How you punctuate an abbreviated title (e.g., Mr., Mrs., Rev., Dr., Prof.) depends on the dialect of your client and the dialect of the audience reading the text.

The first proofreading job I did in Australia, I noticed that most of the abbreviated titles in the document didn’t have periods (full stops) after them. I wanted to turn every Dr into Dr., until I learned there was no need to do so. In Australia and the UK, abbreviated titles are treated differently than they are in the US.

In American English, titles are always followed by periods (full stops).

Rev. Richards and Mrs. Gomez are dining with Prof. Osteen.

In British and Australian English, titles are only followed by periods (full stops) if they are missing the final letter of the full word:

Rev. Richards and Mrs Gomez are dining with Prof. Osteen.

Here, we hang on to the periods (full stops) in Rev. and Prof. because these abbreviations are short for Reverend (“v” is not the last letter of reverend) and Professor (“f” is not the last letter of professor.) We refrain from adding a period (full stop) from Mrs as this abbreviation ends in the same letter as the spelled-out word (mistress).