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shiori_makibaDo you think we are over-using them?
Acronyms can be handy. But they can also be confusing.
Writing rules recommend defining what the acronym means the first time it is used in the body of work. Like Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) the first time and then using FBI onward.
The problem is that unless that acronym is common parlance, it can be easy to forget what it means.
Especially if your brain is like mine. I'm dyslexic. This means that words, letters, numbers, etc often do not arrive at their destination in the same condition in which they left their starting point. For example, I might write mibble school when I meant to write middle school. And my brain would think it was written correctly until I looked at it much later.
I can't speak for other dyslexics but I have found some letters and numbers are particularly prone to getting lost or switching places with one of the other letters or numbers.
For me, it is mostly the ones are similar looking like B and D.
Or sequences that use the same numbers in a different order. For example, when I worked as a cashier, ringing up fresh produce was done using a 4 digit code. Two of those were 4545 and 4554. One was zucchini and one was for cucumbers. You had to get them right since the zucchini was sold by weight and the cucumbers by piece. I cannot tell you how many times I put in zucchini when I meant to enter cucumber. Or vice versa. It didn't help that the two items in question look alike.
Unfamiliar words are also prone to getting their letters switched around when I'm trying to spell them.
Acronyms, until I get really familiar with them, automatically hit the scrambler. On both ends, trying to write/speak them AND trying to remember what it means. Even familiar ones can hit a roadblock of confusion if I haven't seen or used them in a while.
Which is probably why trying to read that article about assigned gender at birth has given me a headache. I can hammer in those acronyms in if it is really that offensive to say physical sex. But the learning curve will be steep.
Acronyms can be handy. But they can also be confusing.
Writing rules recommend defining what the acronym means the first time it is used in the body of work. Like Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) the first time and then using FBI onward.
The problem is that unless that acronym is common parlance, it can be easy to forget what it means.
Especially if your brain is like mine. I'm dyslexic. This means that words, letters, numbers, etc often do not arrive at their destination in the same condition in which they left their starting point. For example, I might write mibble school when I meant to write middle school. And my brain would think it was written correctly until I looked at it much later.
I can't speak for other dyslexics but I have found some letters and numbers are particularly prone to getting lost or switching places with one of the other letters or numbers.
For me, it is mostly the ones are similar looking like B and D.
Or sequences that use the same numbers in a different order. For example, when I worked as a cashier, ringing up fresh produce was done using a 4 digit code. Two of those were 4545 and 4554. One was zucchini and one was for cucumbers. You had to get them right since the zucchini was sold by weight and the cucumbers by piece. I cannot tell you how many times I put in zucchini when I meant to enter cucumber. Or vice versa. It didn't help that the two items in question look alike.
Unfamiliar words are also prone to getting their letters switched around when I'm trying to spell them.
Acronyms, until I get really familiar with them, automatically hit the scrambler. On both ends, trying to write/speak them AND trying to remember what it means. Even familiar ones can hit a roadblock of confusion if I haven't seen or used them in a while.
Which is probably why trying to read that article about assigned gender at birth has given me a headache. I can hammer in those acronyms in if it is really that offensive to say physical sex. But the learning curve will be steep.
