3 ms·

> Egger advises also writing out the full name the first time an acronym is used. Egger even links acronyms to their definition at the beginning or end of the d

> Egger advises also writing out the full name the first time an acronym is used. Egger even links acronyms to their definition at the beginning or end of the document. When someone does not do this, it irritates me to no end. It's so simple to do and is a major improvement. It goes from being a doc that is incomprehensible without understanding unexplained to a doc that beginners can begin to learn from.

chii 4y ago
It's because of this very problem which prompted the development of an auto-acronym-linker plugin in the browser (at the company i worked at)! This actually works pretty well.
csydas 4y ago
Wait people use unintroduced initialisms and acronyms in technical writing? This is something that should always be avoided because it makes the barrier to understanding so much higher. Internally we stress to avoid acronym abuse because it's that much harder to onboard. One of my colleagues from Austria compiled a spreadsheet of acronyms he's come across in our IT realm and it's at about 1300+ rows at this point. It's absolutely wild how much information is obfuscated by stuff like this especially when companies reuse the same acronyms to mean different things. A non-trivial amount of pre-sales failures (e.g. misleading clients on capabilities) came from use.of acronyms from one company which is also used by our company. The sales rep asking if we support XYZ and we go "yes" thinking they mean our XYZ but in fact it's some other XYZ that we don't support. It's a horrible practice in our industry with no purpose. If it's too long to write, just set up autohotkey to expand these shorthands
- Brystephor 4y ago
  Yep. I agree. Acronyms are just a bit more cognitive load when reading a doc. Using an acronym when you're talking to someone in your direct team or who works directly with you, that's fine imo. If you and I are working on service Aaaaaa Bbbbbbb Cccccc then it's fine for us to both call it ABC since it's been directly referenced. But when reading a doc, you need to know who the audience is and what the purpose of the doc is. I can't think of an audience or purpose though where using acronyms without being fully written out on the first use is beneficial. Using an acronym without stating what that acroynm is is just gibberish.
nicbou 4y ago
I do this to write English documentation about German bureaucracy. I created a separate glossary with popup tooltips in the content. I don't expect my target demographic to be familiar with those terms.

chii 4y ago

It's because of this very problem which prompted the development of an auto-acronym-linker plugin in the browser (at the company i worked at)! This actually works pretty well.

csydas 4y ago

Wait people use unintroduced initialisms and acronyms in technical writing? This is something that should always be avoided because it makes the barrier to understanding so much higher. Internally we stress to avoid acronym abuse because it's that much harder to onboard. One of my colleagues from Austria compiled a spreadsheet of acronyms he's come across in our IT realm and it's at about 1300+ rows at this point. It's absolutely wild how much information is obfuscated by stuff like this especially when companies reuse the same acronyms to mean different things. A non-trivial amount of pre-sales failures (e.g. misleading clients on capabilities) came from use.of acronyms from one company which is also used by our company. The sales rep asking if we support XYZ and we go "yes" thinking they mean our XYZ but in fact it's some other XYZ that we don't support. It's a horrible practice in our industry with no purpose. If it's too long to write, just set up autohotkey to expand these shorthands

Brystephor 4y ago
Yep. I agree. Acronyms are just a bit more cognitive load when reading a doc. Using an acronym when you're talking to someone in your direct team or who works directly with you, that's fine imo. If you and I are working on service Aaaaaa Bbbbbbb Cccccc then it's fine for us to both call it ABC since it's been directly referenced. But when reading a doc, you need to know who the audience is and what the purpose of the doc is. I can't think of an audience or purpose though where using acronyms without being fully written out on the first use is beneficial. Using an acronym without stating what that acroynm is is just gibberish.

nicbou 4y ago

I do this to write English documentation about German bureaucracy. I created a separate glossary with popup tooltips in the content. I don't expect my target demographic to be familiar with those terms.