Why acronyms

Though not quite as tricky as acronyms, there are a number of problems with using an abbreviation over full words, particularly when you are working with the English language. English is an extremely complex language that is incredibly difficult on its own. When you add abbreviations to your global content you muddy the waters further because translators do not work from abbreviations.

They need the full words to ensure they have the proper starting point. Words, not acronyms or abbreviations are necessary for a translator to know what you are trying to say. Letters on their own can mean a lot of different things. By avoiding the use of acronyms, and avoiding abbreviating words, the context of the term itself or phrase becomes much clearer and easier to translate which in turn will be cheaper for you as it will reduce the amount of corrections.

If you would like to learn more about writing for a global audience download our free white paper now! Topics: Documentation Translation. She spearheads SimulTrans' Digital Marketing Strategy by creating, managing, and publishing content for inbound and outbound campaigns across multiple channels.

Margarita has more than 25 years of experience in sales and management for the localization industry. She has been involved in many localization organizations, currently also serving as a Program Director for Membership for Women in Localization, a non-profit global organization.

SimulTrans provides software, document, and website localization services, translating text into over languages. We expect volunteers from many surrounding cities, e. After a reasonable amount of time has passed—i.

You should see the doctor when you have flu-like symptoms fever, chills, etc. Below are a few other abbreviations that are common in English. Remember that abbreviations are not always completely standardized. One style guide may advise you to abbreviate Thursday as Thurs. The mall opens at 10 a. I was born on Nov. The class will run Mon. The U. If you use a lot of acronyms in the document, you can also introduce them in a list of abbreviations.

There are some extremely common acronyms that do not need to be introduced. However, the list is small. Scribbr Plagiarism Checker. Instead, put them inside parentheses followed by a comma, or write out full words. Periods should always be used with Latin abbreviations, but not with contractions or acronyms. Abbreviations including acronyms are heavily used in legal writing. The conventions must be strictly followed, but they vary between countries and universities.

If you are writing on a legal topic, you should adhere to the relevant style. If you are following the APA style guidelines , there are some specific guidelines for certain types of abbreviation. Only abbreviate statistical terms such as SD and M and units of measurement such as kg and min if you are also using a number. Use periods if you are abbreviating a Latin term such as g.

She loves the challenge of finding the perfect formulation or wording and derives much satisfaction from helping students take their academic writing up a notch. Have a language expert improve your writing. Here we will use the umbrella term abbreviation to refer to both acronyms and initialisms. Given their ubiquity both within and beyond academic writing, it is reasonable to assume that abbreviations serve a function. In our view, there are three broad reasons why people use acronyms:.

Abbreviations saddle a reader with the chore of deciphering the meaning of words that could simply have been spelled out. Pinker of Harvard University reiterates the importance of writing things out, and illustrates a common and frustrating experience with abbreviations:. Each abbreviation is surrounded by many inches of white space. What possible reason could there have been for the author not to spell them out? Other writing style guides repeat the same wisdom.

This situation can be avoided by simply defaulting to the spelled-out versions of phrases. I will limit myself to using only abbreviations that are familiar to others. The difficulty is that people are subject to the curse of knowledge : it is hard, if not impossible, to imagine what it is like to not know something.

A writer is likely to overestimate both the number of audience members who are even somewhat familiar with the abbreviation, and also the overall degree of familiarity for those who have even heard of it.

This applies to abbreviations that already exist, and it applies especially to abbreviations that are christened by an author for a single work.

Very subtle reminders that one is an outsider can be sufficient to trigger feelings of ostracism. Schmitt provide an example. Schmitt and colleagues found that when non-Christian participants were exposed to a Christmas display, they reported reduced feelings of inclusion, which in turn predicted reduced self-esteem. Similarly, a study in the University of Massachusetts Amherst lab of APS Fellow Nilanjana Dasgupta showed that when women read a job ad that described the position with gender-exclusive language e.

Expecting that unfamiliar acronyms would have similar effects, we recently tested this idea in an experiment during which we randomly assigned 98 college students to read variations of a recruitment message from CrossFit, a fitness organization known for using many abbreviations.

In a control condition, the passage spelled out all abbreviations on every mention. In an abbreviations with clarification condition, the passage used abbreviations but clarified their meaning on the first mention only. In a final abbreviations without clarification condition, the passage used abbreviations with no clarifications, even on first use.

Participants reported their levels of basic psychological needs belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence , their interest in joining the group, and their sense of how difficult the passage was to read.

The results were clear: As the passage became less clear, participants reported not only more threat to their basic needs, but also more difficulty reading the passage and less interest in joining the group. Scientific writing is technical and can be difficult to read and interpret even for seasoned veterans. Why make matters worse by collapsing meaningful words into abbreviations?