Friday, February 17, 2017

Once you've introduce an acronym / initialism should you always use it?



When writing a large document with technical terminology (in this example I'll use 'Content Management System') I would use the full term itself and alongside introduce the acronym / initialism:




...When using your Content Management System (CMS) you should first....




However, once I've done this should I always refer to it by the initialism throughout the document, or is it advised to refer to the term by its full name at periods throughout the text?




I don't want people getting confused by the term if they repeatedly come across it and not understanding what it means, so would be tempted to occasionally reuse the full 'Content Management System' wording in order to associate that with the initalism again, but then equally I don't want people thinking "they've already told us what CMS means, why are they using the full words again?"



Should I just stick with the initialism throughout?


Answer



You should just use the abbreviation in almost every case the rest of the way through. It is a technical document and you have already given context on the abbreviation. Not only is the user expecting you to use it but by using it you are making the user more familiar with the term. By jumping back and forth you are confusing the reader and you are making them read more.



The case where it would be used again is if you were discuss what a Content Management System is or something like that.


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