Get it write

As publishers of a magazine for dentists, we often receive manuscripts for publication that substitute "Dr." for doctor.

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Just to set the record straight, the correct way to write the shortened form of doctor is "Dr" without the full stop. According to the Australian Government Printing Service Style Manual, to which we abide wherever possible, Dr is actually a "Contraction" of Doctor, not an "Abbreviation". It defines an Abbreviation as a shortened form of a word or words that consists of the initial letter or of the initial letter and other letters, but not the final letter. Abbreviations are always written with a full stop whereas Contractions consist of at least the first and last letter of the word and are not written with a full stop. Hope that clears up any confusion.