If your goal is to save time, stop using acronyms and focus on making the content of your message clear. How can we make messages short AND clear?
Outside of those situations, the use of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms is likely to make a message less clear, and take longer to interpret than if the full words had been used.
In most situation the answer is “Don’t use them”.īut, if you really think you need to use them, make sure you understand the reason why you want to. Some people think LOL means Lots of Love What should we do if we want to use an acronym? They actually increase the time it takes someone to read and understand the message. However, while we think acronyms save time, that’s only true for the person writing them. But despite that we still need to STOP using them. So, yes, sometimes it helps to use Acronyms. It’s definitely easier to say “I’m working on project Everest” than “I’m working on the Environmental Variability Eradication Restitution project” Acronyms turn boring project titles into quirky, memorable names.Most people know what RADAR is but few people know (or care) that it means RAdio Detecting And Ranging. Acronyms help make the complex simple.Acronyms make things faster - It is quicker to say USA than United States of America.We use acronyms because we think they help us communicate clearly. The thing is, acronyms aren’t as helpful as we think. There are even websites dedicated to generating new acronyms for use at work! (BTW - be kind to your colleagues, don’t use those websites) From a simple request to reply ASAP, to descriptions of JAVA solutions using J2EE, J2ME, J2SE, JAAS, JAR, and more. Love them or hate them, our work communication is full of them and we should stop using acronyms. Acronyms, TLAs, abbreviations, initialisms.