Initials as Title Abbreviations: Should I Format Them as Titles?

Question

I am the webmaster/editor/curator for a website/e-magazine focussing on a game system. Reviews of scenarios published for the game system are a regular feature, and it’s frequently the case that a required add-on product will be named. Often, the add-on is well-enough known that the review author will often just refer to it by its initials (e.g., a product called Guns of the World might be referred to as “GotW”.

In the past, I've been less than entirely consistent in handling formatting in the magazine and on the website. I am starting to write a style guide for myself.

How should I handle these abbreviated titles? As I see it, my choices are:

1. Expand the initials into the full title, and then format it as I would any title (italics, usually)
2. Leave the initials as initials, but format them as I would the title (e.g., GotW)
3. Do neither, leaving the initials as unformatted initials.

Which is most consistent with ‘normal’ practice?

Answer 1

It's normal to italicize the abbreviation of an italicized title. The MLA Style Center recommends that: Should the acronym of an italicized title be set in italics?

Some publications now recommend against italicizing titles at all (The Guardian), but if you are italicizing titles, you should do abbreviations too.

Looking at random video game websites, Kotaku italicizes both; IGN italicizes neither.

As to whether you expand them, it's normal to do that on first use, but use an abbreviation after: in formal texts you would say "The Last of Us (TLOU)" and then afterwards use TLOU, but in less formal texts you may rely on people to infer the abbreviation's meaning. The exception is very commonly known abbreviations which needn't be spelt out (something like CNN or IBM); you will have to judge what they are.