Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Dealing with acronyms
If there’s one area in which acronyms are overused it’s technical writing. Tech writing ranks third behind the government and military, and the UN, for the proliferation of acronyms.
Acronyms are ostensibly used reduce the number of words in a document by encapsulating the name of a product or a concept into two, three, or four letters. But they also seem to be used by writers, marketers, and developers to make a product or idea sound profound or cutting edge.
There’s nothing wrong with using acronyms. But they should be used sparingly. Using too many acronyms can be confusing to the reader. Take a look, for example, at the technical documentation put out by Nokia and you’ll see what I mean. (This isn’t a jab at the company; I’ve worked on documentation for Nokia.) There are acronyms everywhere. When working on the documentation, I found myself constantly referring to a glossary in order to figure out what each acronym meant.
The old trick of introducing a concept or term at the beginning of a book then using the acronym throughout really doesn’t work. Many people use manuals as a reference; they don’t read them cover to cover. Anyway, unless you’re using the documentation or application regularly chances are you’ll forget what an acronym stands for.
So, when is it OK to use acronyms? That can be pretty subjective. I tend to use them very sparingly – usually for terms or concepts with which the audience should be familiar. For example, if I’m writing telecommunications documentation I can be sure that most (if not all) of the readers understand 3GPP.
Acronyms are ostensibly used reduce the number of words in a document by encapsulating the name of a product or a concept into two, three, or four letters. But they also seem to be used by writers, marketers, and developers to make a product or idea sound profound or cutting edge.
There’s nothing wrong with using acronyms. But they should be used sparingly. Using too many acronyms can be confusing to the reader. Take a look, for example, at the technical documentation put out by Nokia and you’ll see what I mean. (This isn’t a jab at the company; I’ve worked on documentation for Nokia.) There are acronyms everywhere. When working on the documentation, I found myself constantly referring to a glossary in order to figure out what each acronym meant.
The old trick of introducing a concept or term at the beginning of a book then using the acronym throughout really doesn’t work. Many people use manuals as a reference; they don’t read them cover to cover. Anyway, unless you’re using the documentation or application regularly chances are you’ll forget what an acronym stands for.
So, when is it OK to use acronyms? That can be pretty subjective. I tend to use them very sparingly – usually for terms or concepts with which the audience should be familiar. For example, if I’m writing telecommunications documentation I can be sure that most (if not all) of the readers understand 3GPP.
