TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Bad Initialisms From:Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 15 Aug 1994 08:54:29 CDT
Marilynne Smith said:
|} I convinced a team not to use PAP for a productivity project, then, because
|} no one was using PAP for anything else, management grabbed it.
|}
|} The association I form with PAP, is a thin cereal they feed to babies as in
|} "Don't feed me any of that pap!"
There are a number of bad connotations with this one, including 1. ``cheifly
regional''--A teat or nipple, 2. anything resembling a nipple, 3. easily
digested food for infants, 4. something lacking real value, 5. money and
favors obtained as political patronage, and last but not least, the
unfortunate association with the Papanicolaou's test.
Yup, not a warm, fuzzy word, all things considered.
_______________ _____
/ ___ __/__\ \ / / _\ Steve Fouts
/___ \| | ___\ | / __\ sfouts -at- ellison -dot- sc -dot- ti -dot- com
/ / \ | \ / \
/_______/__|_______\_/________\ "She understood, as he did, that all writing
was infernally boring and futile, but that it had to be done out of respect
for tradition" --Stanislaw Lem
