5 exercises — introduce on first use, plural forms, possessives, a vs an before acronyms, and avoiding acronym soup.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
A technical document introduces an abbreviation. Which sentence follows the correct convention?
Option D is correct — both B and C follow the standard convention. The rule is: spell out the full term first, then place the abbreviation in parentheses: "Command-Line Interface (CLI)". After that, use "CLI" alone throughout the document. Option A reverses this — it introduces the abbreviation before the full term, which is incorrect. Some style guides (Google Developer Style, Microsoft) accept either order as long as the pattern is consistent, but the "full term first" convention is universal across technical documentation. Never introduce an abbreviation and then never use it — if you only mention it once, spell it out without abbreviating.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly forms the plural of an abbreviation?
Option B is correct. The plural of an abbreviation is formed by adding a lowercase "s" directly — no apostrophe. "APIs", "CRDs", "VMs", "READMEs". Option A uses an apostrophe ("API's") — this is the possessive form, not the plural. "API's response time is…" (possessive) vs "three APIs" (plural). Option C lowercases the acronym — abbreviations should maintain their original casing. Option D uses mixed case ("APis") which is incorrect. Common plurals: APIs, CLIs, VPCs, CRDs, SLAs, ADRs, PRs, VMs. Memory aid: apostrophe = possession; s alone = plural.
3 / 5
A README section references multiple abbreviations in sequence. Which version is clearest?
Option B is the strongest. It introduces the key abbreviation explicitly ("Infrastructure as Code (IaC)"), uses an em-dash interruption to name the specific tool (AWS CDK), and expands vendor-specific product names on first mention (Amazon ECS, Amazon ECR). Chaining multiple unexplained abbreviations — as in Option A — creates an "acronym soup" that is opaque to readers unfamiliar with the full stack. Option C removes the slash from CI/CD (incorrect) and capitalises IaC as IAC. Option D spells out every abbreviation — fine for a glossary but painful to read in a README. The rule for abbreviation chains: expand the least-known ones, keep the universally known ones (CI/CD, IAM) abbreviated.
4 / 5
Which sentence uses the possessive of an abbreviation correctly?
Option D is correct. Option B is the correct possessive form for a singular noun: "API's rate limit" (the rate limit belonging to the API). The apostrophe-s construction is standard for abbreviation possessives. Option C is also commonly preferred in technical writing — many style guides (Google Developer Style in particular) recommend avoiding possessives with product names and abbreviations by restructuring: "API rate limit" (noun modifier) instead of "API's rate limit". Option A ("APIs'" with apostrophe after the s) would be correct for a plural possessive: "the APIs' combined throughput" (the throughput of multiple APIs). Both B and C are widely used; know both patterns.
5 / 5
An article vs abbreviation question: which is correct — "a API" or "an API"?
Option B is correct. The rule for articles before abbreviations depends on pronunciation, not spelling. "API" is pronounced "ay-pee-eye" — the first sound is the vowel "ay". Therefore: "an API", "an SLA", "an RFC", "an HTTP request", "an SQL query". For abbreviations pronounced as words (acronyms): "a URL" (you-ar-el, starts with consonant "you") → actually pronounced "earl" by some, but "you" is the standard → use "a URL". Common patterns: an API, an SLA, an ADR, an IDE, an ORM, an ETL pipeline. Contrast: a CI/CD pipeline (pronounced "see-eye-see-dee" — "see" starts with consonant sound), a REST API (pronounced "rest").