On Abbreviations

Writing, like all other stylized activity, comes with rules.  Here's an important one, so often overlooked in our haste to say things ever more quickly.

When abbreviating, use an apostrophe when the final letter of the abbreviation is the same as the final letter of the original word, and otherwise use a period (but don't capitalize the next letter, regardless of what MS Word Autocorrect would lead you to believe).

So:

— Association becomes assoc. or ass'n
— Amendment becomes ame. or amd't

— Continued becomes cont. or cont'd

Seems like a small detail, but it's only way to abbreviate with style.