The world is full of acronyms. From social networking acronyms like LOL, and government acronyms like IRS, to business acronyms like ROI (and RTFM) it is impossible to communicate today without acronyms, even in color copies. Great writers will tell you to avoid them, and we are going to assume you are trying to do that. But, as we mentioned, it is nearly impossible not to encounter them at some time in your copy writing. When you do, what should you do? How do you use acronyms correctly? Follow these four simple steps and you will be well on your way to proper acronym usage.
1. Keep acronyms to a minimum. You may have to use them to communicate, but don’t use that as a license to use them for very possible occasion. Keep them to a minimum, by only using acronyms when it makes no sense to use the full phase. For example, you could say the Internal Revenue Service, but everyone knows the IRS, and you should feel free to use that acronym (KWIM?).
Use acronyms only when they are culturally familiar and there is no sense in writing our the full phrase.
2. Spell out an acronym on first use. The first time you use an acronym you should spell out its full phrase. For example, a correct usage of an acronym for the first time would look like this: I just received a note from the IRS, Internal Revenue Service, telling me to pay my taxes.
After the first usage of an acronym you do not need to spell it out each time in the document.
3. When spelling out an acronym, do not capitalize the first letter of each word unless it is a proper noun. Here is an example of what I mean:
IRS - would be spelled out “Internal Revenue Service”
LOL - would be spelled out as “laughing out loud”
WTF- would be spelled out as “what the f….” well, you get the idea!
Know if your acronyms are depicting proper nouns or not.
4. Once you define an acronym, consistently use the acronym throughout the rest of the document. Be careful not to replace the meaning of your acronym or create additional acronyms for the same phrase throughout your document. Once you start using an acronym use it consistently through out your document.
Keep the same definition of your acronym throughout your document.