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Q&A How do you transcribe a dialogue when abbreviations are used?

What's interesting is writing for the "eye" vs "ear" -- for example, in the comic books, Wonder Woman is often called, both in dialog and captions, "WW" (a savings of 10 characters) -- but to SAY "...

posted 5y ago by April Salutes Monica C.‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-02-10T14:22:57Z (about 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45930
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:10:22Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45930
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:10:22Z (over 4 years ago)
What's interesting is writing for the "eye" vs "ear" -- for example, in the comic books, Wonder Woman is often called, both in dialog and captions, "WW" (a savings of 10 characters) -- but to SAY "doubleyou-doubleyou" is longer than Wonder Woman -- 6 syllables compared to 4.

Similarly "World Wide Web" "WWW" "dubdubdub" (save 12 characters, but go from 3 to 9 syllables if you say the letter fully, so then people re-abbreviated (?) the letter.

(And I know people with experience in the CIA _and_ the CIA -- culinary institute of america and central intelligence agency)

**So back to your question** : Cyn's answer works for your specific instances. But this is yet another **chance to show character:**

- Is the character a pompous guy? Maybe have him say "ante meridian" and debate anyone who gives a date as "BC" that it should be "BCE" (and "CE" instead of "AD"). (A more goofball variant is Bertram Wooster who says things like "It was far to A of the M for me to be fully awake." (Bertie often invents initialisms/acronyms
- Is the character more like Shaggy from _Scooby Doo_? He'll probably say "dubdubdub" instead of "WWW" when giving a URL. He may declare contentment by naming the GIF he'd send if it were chat and not face-to-face: "Jon Stewart eating popcorn, man! Tell me what's going on before I explode!"
- Is the character unfamiliar with the acronym or the group it represents? Maybe they say "N.O.A.A." instead of "No-ah" (for noaa.gov). "A.A.A." instead of Triple-A (automotive service). (It could be in reverse -- they may try to invent a pronunciation, like "Dough/D'oh" for DOE, which people familiar with it would call D-O-E." This could show a character new to that world -- a recent college grad? 
#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-06-12T13:47:48Z (almost 5 years ago)
Original score: 2