Re: Acronyms in Glossary

Subject: Re: Acronyms in Glossary
From: Jan Boomsliter <boom -at- CADENCE -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 07:03:30 -0800

Your glossary does not present any problems; if any entry is known by
its abbreviation, put that in the entry, e.g.,

customer service representative (CSR) ...

If a list of abbreviations is helpful, make one; try this format:

CSR customer service representative

Call it "List of Abbreviations" (NOT acronyms) and place it before the
glossary (see Chicago Manual of Style).

jb
===========================================
I'm working on a large on-line procedures manual for our
inventory analysts. My questions are about where to put
acronyms in the glossary.

The first question is whether we should list entries in the
glossary under the acronym/initialism/abbreviation, followed by
the spelled-out version:

> CSR (Customer Service Representative)

or as the fully spelled-out term, with the acronym in parentheses:

> Customer Service Representative (CSR).

Each letter of the alphabet has its own screen in the glossary;
for example, the user clicks on a "B" button to go to a list of
words that start with the letter "B," then clicks on the term.
Each letter's list is pretty short (you can see most, if not all,
of the terms on one screen without scrolling), so "both" probably
wouldn't be necessary.

My second question: if we decide to list them by
acronym/initialism instead of by the full term, how do we sort
them within the glossary? Right now they're listed like this:

> FCAT (Forecasting Category)
> FDPT (Forecasting Department)
> FDIV (Forecasting Division)
> FSUB (Forecasting Subdivision)
> Factory Ship
> Final Replenishment Period
> Finished Goods
> Forecasting Hierarchy
> ...

I find this arrangement a bit disorienting. "FSUB" just doesn't
"belong" ahead of "Factory Ship" in my model of the world.

My references are silent about the issue. I guess they weren't
written by people who work in an environment where people
actually speak in acronyms instead of complete words (never mind
complete sentences).

Thanks for any enlightenment y'all can provide.

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