March
24, 2016
My Thoughts on Company
and Organization Acronyms and a Little More.
By Mike Hampson, owner,
Helicopter Links
(San Diego, California, USA): How
many times have you see an acronym in an article,
on a website, on social media, in an email and have
no idea of the meaning of the
acronym? I looked up the acronym ABC on the
Acronym Finder website and I
found around 200 different meanings for the acronym
ABC.
A few examples of ABC are: the American Broadcasting
Company, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Atlanta
Bread
Company,
Already Been
Chewed (gum), Advancing Blade Concept (helicopters)
and to the Albuquerque Bicycle Center.
Even
something that might seem remote as the Airborne
Law Enforcement
Association (ALEA) acronym, can be confusing if
you've only seen their acronym. Here are some translations
I found online for ALEA:
Access the Ladder to English Advancement,
Accord
de Libre Echange des Ameriques, Airborne Law Enforcement
Association, Artificial Life and Evolutionary
Algorithms, American Law and Economics Association,
Arizona
Law Enforcement Academy, Aquatic Lands Enhancement
Act, Associazione Laureati Economia
Aziendale, Asian Law and Economics Association,
Assistance to Law Enforcement Acta, Australian
Literacy Educators' Association, Australian Livestock
Exporters Association and Automotive
Leather Eleganza Atelier.
Can you believe this? Helicopter Association
International's (HAI) acronym is even more confusing
than ALEA! Here's a list of acronyms I found for
HAI:
HAL America Inc., Hamamatsu Agency
for Innovation, Handbook of Artificial Intelligence,
Harvard AIDS Initiative,
Hauling Anything Incorporated,
Health Action International,
Health Alliance International,
Healthcare-Acquired Infection,
Healthcare-Associated Infections,
Helicopter Association International,
Help Association Inc,
Hellenic Aerospace Industry,
HelpAge International,
Hemagglutination Inhibition,
Hepatic Activity Index,
Hepatic Arterial Infusion,
Higgenbotham Auctioneers International,
High Altitude Indoctrination,
High-Current Arc Ignition,
High-Level Analog Input,
Higher Authority of Intelligence,
Histology Activity Index,
Historically Advantaged Institution,
Hockey Art International,
Home Automation, Inc.,
Horizontal Advance Increment,
Hospital Acquired Infection,
Hot Air Injection,
Hotel Adelaide International,
Hotel Association of India,
Human Amyloid Imaging,
Human Appeal International and the
Human Awareness Institute.
Wow.
While
having an acronym in a
logo is currently an
acceptable
practice,
in my opinion, the very best logos have the
company/organization name spelled out in the
logo without an acronym. But there are always
exceptions because sometimes, the spelled out
company name and acronym works
well.
For
example, Helicopter Links logo has uses our
name and it's acronym. We never, ever refer
to Helicopter Links as HL but for the logo,
it seems to work. I've seen logos where it's
part acronym and part
words.
The other exception to having
a company name not spelled out and when one
can break all the rules, is when a large
company
with millions of dollars to spend each year,
over time, can brand their logo. In the
case
with Nike, their Swoosh. According
to several articles noted on the Swoosh Wikipedia
page, the Nike Swoosh is one of the most recognizable
brand logos in the world. With millions to spend
each year and over time, you can break most
rules and get away with it.
My proposition is that when a
small company doesn't have millions of
dollars to spend each year in branding campaigns,
it's better to write out the company name in
all
instances (logos, articles, your own website,
social media, emails) because one wants to create
the least amount of confusion and to create
excellent communication, so that readers know
for sure, what organization
is being written about.
Just because
a person
intimately knows their own organization's
acronym, doesn't mean the reader has the same
inside
knowledge. At this point in my article,
do you disagree with me? Then I recommend
to
re-read this article from the beginning and
pay particular attention to the multiple ways
you
can decode
of
ALEA and HAI. Being completely honest with
yourself, can you immediately translate both
ALEA and HAI
correctly,
out loud,
without looking up?
It
seemed to me that before 2000, I really didn't
see as many different acronyms
as I do today. Maybe the rise of acronyms happened
in the 1970s or 1980s, I really don't know. But
as more people use the internet and more companies
are
created, it seems that more and more people have
an urgent need to create a special acronym for
their business and organization.
But are acronyms always necessary?
I think there are many instances where acronyms
are necessary in certain industries, in science,
with products and services, where people refer
to specific items using its acronym.
But when it comes to an organization's
name, I would recommend to be careful using
an acronym. In my opinion, there are several things
happening today with acronyms.
1) In general, it seems that
people are throwing acronyms all over the internet
without decoding them and not caring if people can
unravel them.
2) I think that many
people are so accustom to their own acronyms in
their own world, they assume everyone knows
them too. Is the best
approach?
3)
I think there are several reasons why people
throw
out acronyms
at a moments notice.
3A) They simply have not thought about
the confusion they are bringing to their readers
due
to their lack of education which is an honest
mistake or they are being
arrogant and trying to prove they are smarter
than others.
3B) They think it's correct to use
acronyms at all costs, and that that's the way
it should be!
3C) Lastly, I think that many people
still think they
need to save space when writing an article
online, a blog, on social media, an email or
on
a website. (Twitter does have limit to what
you can write but Facebook does not. Twitter is
an
exception to the rule where acronyms spelled
out can cause
posting troubles.) What are some solutions?
- Try not to use acronyms of business
or organizations when writing articles, when speaking
about your own company on the business website
or on social media.
Here is something to think about. In some high
school writing classes, they teach students
that
when
writing
a paper
(or an article) to assume the reader does not
know you and has no knowledge of the subject
you are writing about. This is the approach I
take when I write articles, a website, blog articles,
emails and when I post on social media and
is the reason that I try to rarely us acronyms
when writing.
- Officially, for articles, in the
first instance of an acronym needs to be spelled
out with the acronym following in parenthesis.
Then the next instance of the word can be the
acronym. For the
first instance example: Helicopter Association
International (HAI). The second instance would
be like this, HAI.
- Unofficially,
my personal recommendation
is to write out all your company/organization
names for the entire online article.
To me, writing
an acronym instead the spelling out the business
name is devaluing each word in the name of the
business. I am also
tired
of
seeing
so
many
acronyms and being confused! As a reader, I really
don't want to have to memorize your company's
acronym. It's too much work. As a reader, I want
to enjoy the article and have to work to understand
the point of the article. As a writer, I also
have no interest in forcing the
reader
to
constantly
making them scroll up and down on a web page,
just to decode several acronyms.
- I would say that many professional
writers would completely disagree with
my unofficial comment above but this is how I
feel.
In my book, a few extra words is not going to
make your online article or web page too long.
And I bet the reader doesn't even notice if you
are not using acronyms!
- If you have your own blog or website,
you can do what you wish. If you are working
as a writer for someone else, you will have to
follow
their rules, since they are paying you!
- If
you are writing for a particular industry, assume
the person
is new to that industry.
- Think from the reader's
perspective. That is, have
some
compassion and empathy for the reader.
Not everyone loves or knows your company or organization
as much as you do!
- Please remember that your
readers can be from the approximately 196
countries (and other places such as islands,
provinces, territories, and etc.,)s from around
the world. The reader might not live in your country!
Imagine.
- Remember that your reader's first
language might not be your own language.
- Try to avoid using slang or idioms as much
as possible. Unfortunately, this is not always
possible but it's good to be mindful of these
things. By not writing in slang or using idioms,
it makes the article easier for people to translate
articles and websites into other languages. The
same is true with acronyms. They don't translate
well in online.
- When writing online or in
an email, there is no need to try to save space
by using
an acronym. If the goal is to have clear communication,
then write it out!
A few other writing tips.
- Take an adult course on writing.
- Buy
some books on writing
and/or
use the
library.
- The
cover of the book above is "The MAC
is Not a typewriter" by
Robin Williams. (She also has a book titled,
"The PC is
Not a typewriter".) was originally
published in
1989, with a 2nd Editions
printed in
2003. While this book is not a book
about acronyms, is
still
an extremely
relevant book to help you understand
some good methods to make you a better
writer in the age of computers
and the
internet.
- There is the "Associated Press Stylebook",
a reference for journalists, students, editors
and writers.
- Look online and see if there
are any free courses or websites to help
become people become better writers.
- Reading also helps people
become better writers.
My last thoughts are that trying
save space online by using acronyms, is complete
nonsense. (There are certainly exceptions
to my own recommendation. Sometimes acronyms are
necessary. The horror!) My hope is if writers keep
these things in mind,
a
few extra
key strokes will provide crystal clear communication
and reduce miscommunication for your readers from
around the world.
-End article.
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