36 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality if you set the language as UK or US English. The programme won’t do it all for you, however, and do be aware that it’s not always reliable, but many dictionaries will provide alternate spellings, so if you’re unsure about a word, take the time to look it up. 4.2 Understanding Abbreviations The guidelines provided by most journals will have something to say about the use of abbreviations. Some frown upon them and ask authors to keep their use to a bare minimum or to use only standard abbreviations for measures. Others will expect you to use abbreviations, but give very specific instructions about how they should be introduced, defined, used with consistency and provided in an alphabetical list as well as in the text. If the journal to which you’re submitting your paper offers such specific instructions, follow them carefully, but even if the guidelines say virtually nothing about using abbreviations, there are useful and effective ways of using abbreviations that should be observed in all cases for two important reasons: to maintain conventional professional standards and to ensure that your readers will understand your abbreviations and thus what you are saying about the terms and concepts you abbreviate. Standard abbreviations of measures can be found in a number of places, such as the American Psychological Association (APA) and other style manuals and many dictionaries, and generally do not need to be defined in your paper. So the important point with such abbreviations is to use the appropriate format for each and use it in the exact same format each and every time the abbreviation is used: ‘ms’ for millisecond, for example, not ‘ms’ in one instance and ‘msec’ in the next; ‘kph’ and ‘mph,’ not ‘km/hr’ and ‘mph.’ The same is the case with common Latin abbreviations such as ‘etc.,’ ‘e.g.,’ ‘i.e.,’ ‘cf.,’ PARt II: PRePARIng, PResentIng And PolIsHIng YoUR woRk