Acronym Soup
- Rule 81 - If you don't understand it until you can explain it to your grandmother/an eighth grader/a fifth grader then you don't understand it until you can explain it without jargon, acronyms, and initialisms.
- Rule 82 - A fundamental rule of writing: don't use an acronym without first spelling it out (DUAAWFSPIO). This goes double for your marketing website!
This time around, I will be providing a little writing advice. You are probably thinking, “That’s rich, coming from you.” Annnnyyyyywaaayyy…
We all love our acronyms and initialisms. They are part of the modern world, and we can’t escape them even if we wanted to. We even have an initialism for them: TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms). Unfortunately, they are often confusing. Did you mean Mobile Device Management (MDM), Master Data Management (MDM), Multidimensional Data Modeling (MDM), or Miniature Dwarf Mice (MDM)? This time around, I discuss some good practices for defining acronyms that will help us avoid feeling like we’re drowning in Acronym Soup.