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Re: First usage question (are we wrong?)

Subject: Re: First usage question (are we wrong?)
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 03 May 2005 10:13:50 -0400




Eva Whitley wrote:

We provide technical reports to the Government as part of our contract.

I had been given to understand (in the five years I've been doing my
job) that widely-understood industry terms were not defined on first
mention (partly because our SMEs have a hard time remembering what a
lot of the initialisms stand for!).


Eva,

It is hardly ever the case that you can define and limit the audience for a technical document to experienced industry engineers. There is almost always someone who has access to the document and who is in a position of authority but who is not familiar with all of the standard acronyms and abbreviations or who has a bug up his or her butt regarding "correct" English style.

I think it is safest to spell out the phrase on first use (without caps unless it is a proper noun), place the the abbreviation in parens after [example: "local area network (LAN)"], and move on as if nothing happened. This will not be particularly annoying to people who use the term every day (although doing it repeatedly would be); it will remind those engineers who had forgotten what it stands for); and it will inform the bureaucrats.

That's my opinion, though. And if the agency or GPO style guide says you shouldn't do it, then follow the guide. When tax dollars are involved, the answer doesn't have to make sense.

Dick

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References:
First usage question (are we wrong?): From: Eva Whitley

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