Section
2. CONTRACTIONS
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1-2-1. DEFINITION A contraction is a word, title, or phrase
represented in shortened form for the purpose of brevity. Contractions
facilitate communication and thus are a vital part of the Federal Aviation
Administration’s (FAA) everyday communications process. a. Contractions lend
freedom to communication(s) in general correspondence. Without them, written
communication becomes cumbersome. b. Contractions save
space on telegraphic circuits, tabulating and computer equipments, charts,
drawings and reports. c. The International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the focal point for world-wide use in
the international aeronautical community. d. Standard ICAO
abbreviations and codes are to be used, wherever possible. These are
available in ICAO document 8400. 1-2-3.
RULES FOR DEVELOPING CONTRACTIONS To form
or use contractions, the following rules shall apply: a. Signs and symbols
included as part of a contraction are limited to those available on FAA
communications equipment. b. Contractions
composed of both upper and lower case letters cannot be used in telegraphic
communications. c. In some cases, a
contraction may include letter and number combinations. d. A contraction
should retain an alphabetical similarity to the longer word or phrase. e. Three-character
contractions are no longer to be coined due to possible conflict with
Location Identifiers in an automated and voice response environment. f. Words of five
letters or less are not to be contracted. g. Excessively long
contractions will not be adopted. h. Prepositions,
conjunctions, and articles should be omitted in forming contractions. The
slant may be substituted, if necessary. i. A pronounceable
word should be attained, if possible, when contracting a phrase. j. Abbreviations that
are unique to a particular publication shall not be listed in this order. k. A contraction may
have more than one meaning. There are four different categories which
constitutes this rational. These categories are air traffic, general,
meteorological (weather) and international aeronautics (ICAO). l. In cases where a
contraction may be unfamiliar to the recipient, spell out the word or phrase
the first time it is used and follow it with the contraction in parenthesis. m. Contraction stated
should read fluently with the remainder of the text. If questionable, the
recipient should refer back to the originator. EXAMPLE- The
contractions in this order may normally be used for any derivative of the
root word. If confusion would otherwise result, variations may be shown by
adding the following letters to the contraction of the root word:
1-2-4.
RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING CONTRACTIONS Requests for new
contractions, changes, or deletion of obsolete ones may be submitted by the
simplest means possible (e.g. Route Slip) to FAA Headquarters, System
Operations Services/System Operations Airspace and AIM Office, |