Abbreviate This!
Don't Wait Punctuate
Uppercase/Lowercase
Symbolically Speaking
Swinerton
100

Quality Control Manager

QC Manager (not QA/QC Manager)

100

The words “design” and “build” should always be combined in this way: design-build, design/build, design|build

design-build

100

This person has a specific role managing a construction project

Project Manager (capitalized)

100

The freezing point of water, in Fahrenheit, is…

32°F

100

The correct way to refer to actions taken by Swinerton: is/are

Swinerton is (3rd person singular)

200

Superintendent

Supt (not Sup or Super)

200

Building out both the structure (core) and exterior (shell) of a building

Core and shell (no ampersand, no hyphens)

200

The entity or person Swinerton is constructing a building for

owner or client (either, not capitalized)

200

Assuming no space constraints, write how much a four million-dollar project is valued at.

$4 million (no hyphen, no word dollars)

200

The amount of Swinerton that is employee-owned

100% (always use symbol)

300

Virtual design and construction

VD&C (no periods, no spaces)

300

When using quotation marks, a question mark goes here.

Inside (i.e. “What?”)

300

This general market name is focused on airports and airplanes

aviation market (not capitalized)

300

The title of a person who is both a vice president as well as a division manager

Vice President and Division Manager (not &)

300

Complete this sentence with appropriate punctuation: Swinerton’s headquarters is located in…

Concord, CA. or Concord, California

400

Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Superintendent

MEP Superintendent (with MEP abbreviated, superintendent not abbreviated)

400

Choose the correct punctuation: Swinerton is an employee-owned company (: ; , / ) it has 20 office locations.

Semicolon ( ; )

400

Capitalize the following sentence: the south downtown district is located in south-central atlanta.

The South Downtown district is located in south-central Atlanta.

400

Using Swinerton’s preference, say how much money a quarter is

25 cents (not 25)

400

Our preferred term for subcontractors

Trade partners

500

On its first mention, the primary university of the State of Washington is written with the following abbreviation: U.W./UW/U.Dub/W.U./W.S.U.

University of Washington (UW)

500

This punctuation mark makes two words function as an adjective before a noun, but should not be used for those same words after a noun.

Hyphen (well-executed plan; the plan was well executed)

500

We are working on project mercury and the unc medical center project.

We are working on Project Mercury and the UNC Medical Center project.

500

A LEED gold certified project

LEED Gold®-certified project (® typically goes after Gold/Silver/Platinum, but after LEED ® if no level is specified)

500

Using New York as an example, this way of referring to a Swinerton office reduces the “silo-ing” of our company

Swinerton’s New York office (not Swinerton New York)

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