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Q&A Acronyms in Technical Writing

The most unobtrusive method is often the best. Many organizations and style manuals suggest using the full term on first reference, and then using the abbreviation on subsequent references. "The B...

posted 7y ago by user8356‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:40:55Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29151
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar user8356‭ · 2019-12-08T06:40:55Z (almost 5 years ago)
The most unobtrusive method is often the best. Many organizations and style manuals suggest using the full term on first reference, and then using the abbreviation on subsequent references.

"The Bureau of Land Management issued the order on July 16. According to BLM regulations...."

Many editors suggest that the "full term (abbreviation)" form is redundant; it assumes that readers are quite dense. This is not what good technical (or other non-fiction writing) should do. It's like the detestable habit of spelling out numbers and then also writing the digits in parentheses. These are the kinds of things that lawyers do to make documents seem especially important (and costly).

The AP Style Guide is an excellent reference for writing that involves government, business, and other organizations. AP specifies which agencies, such as the FBI and NFL, can be abbreviated on first reference.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-07-10T16:17:37Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 3