Acronyms are NOT Your Friend - A Podcast
By Michael StelznerFYI, here’s something you need to hear.
Simply said, acronyms are not friendly for readers.
Listen to my rant below.
Please let me know what you think!
BTW, as a side note, let me know what you think about these little podcasts…
(5 votes, average: 4.6 out of 5)
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September 7th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Your podcast is testament to plain ol’ good writing. (I know the “correct” ways I should have said that is “testament to writing well.” But there’s something to be said for being colloquial. )
I say that because people like to hide behind words, camouflage messages in jargon and other cover-up writing techniques. Sometimes it’s because they either don’t have much to say, but feel they must say something. Or they want to appear superior in some way. That’s all bull.
While the following example isn’t an acronym-laden sentence, it does speak to my larger point.
“It is determining the content and the investment made in obtaining content that will attract an audience that is being played against the information that the mass media should be gathering and providing to an audience but is not because it is to costly to produce.”
And that was written by a PhD. I’m not naming names, but I’d like to have the editor’s head of this book.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Roger - Amen brother! - Mike
September 7th, 2007 at 11:24 am
GREAT point you make about a major communication killer called the acronym. We’ve all fallen prey to it at some point even though it defies everything we know about writing to communicate.
I remember well in a DMA
(Direct Marketing Association) training course when I started my career that was taught by a gentleman called Dick Hogsden. He said that in direct response copy that you should always maintain the KISS 
(Keep It Simple Stupid) principle. As the writer, your job is to do the work for the reader by eliminating all barriers that might slow down or inhibit the message you want to convey.
I’ve done a lot of consulting projects for health care industry regulators in the federal government. Talk about acronyms!!! It’s hard to imagine how anything useful happens within government where NON-communication has grown to become an art form.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
WTG! I mean, way to go! Acronyms are confusing in English, and if you’re translating, they’re even more of a problem. It is sad that large companies, such as Fidelity Investments and IBM, not only abound in acronyms, but also express great pride in them.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Ted and Paul;
Repeat after me:
Death to Acronyms!
Death to Acronyms!
Mike
September 8th, 2007 at 7:33 am
If find it much quicker to read the actual meaning than it’s acronym. Excessive use is indeed very confusing.
September 8th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Michael, acronyms are a time saver and mostly a space saver for the writer,
however they are used at the expense of simple communication. Also, I think
they are a spurious badge of self importance. (look how important i am because i know all the acronyms). It is because of these elements of dumb
writing that I agree with you that acronyms should only be used if they are
accompanied by an expanded explanation or not used at all.
By the way, michael, you would benefit greatly from some speech training
in my opinion. You drop your g’s for one thing which is a common error in
mass communications these days. For anyone like you who presents verbal
thoughts to his public, your public image suffers with sloppy speech.
A word of wisdom to one trying to improve his image should be sufficient.
Sincerely, Doug Rosbury
September 9th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Michael, you raised a very good point (vitally important). Confused prospects simply don’t purchase, the whole purpose is to reach out to your audience not make them confused.
September 15th, 2007 at 10:06 am
As a techical writer, I’ve found that the use of acronyms to be quite pervasive. When writing in a new field, I often have to ask the experts what a particular unfamiliar acronym means or what it stands for. Surprise! They have been using the acronym for such a long time that they have forgotten what it stands for, but they reply “I know what it means.” Unfortunately, extracting a real definition for the acronym is something else.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Great podcast! I abhor acronyms. And I’m not just talking about white papers. I work in a company where they use acronyms (and the word “leverage”) excessively. I’m constantly receiving emails that I’m clueless as to what they are talking about. It’s almost as if it’s a political move to use acronyms to “show” everyone that you’re hip and in the know. But it’s just annoying and a waste of time because I then have to email back asking them to clarify what they are talking about. I think the department I work in generates 3 new acronyms a week!
Here’s an honest to goodness real example of an email I got today. Seriously. I’m not worried about sharing company secrets because I don’t think this will mean much of anything to much of anyone - it certainly didn’t to me. This was a 3 sentence email, of which this was the first sentence: “IDD is embarking on another HDV “pilot” with GSS.”
Excellent! And the following two sentence did absolutely nothing to clear up any confusion. What a mess! Thanks for reading my rant.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Oh, and to add, all good writing, when using any type of acronym, spells out the WHOLE phrase on its very first use, e.g.
“I work in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). And in the field of HCI we blah blah blah……”.
And then occasionally you should remind the reader of the meaning again, “Human Computer Interaction (HCI)”. Though if you are using a lot of unfamiliar acronyms, even this can be confusing and I’d recommend sticking to spelling it out each time.
My 2 cents.