Technical Writing Exercise – Abbr And TLAs

ople like to keep things brief when they’re writing. It saves a lot of time if you write HMS rather than Her Majesty’s Ship. Some shortened forms are so standard that there are people who have never seen mister written out. It’s always Mr. And it’s not a new idea. Centuries ago, the Romans used the letters SPQR rather than spell out Senatus Populusque Romanus (The Senate and the Roman People). (Easier if you’re carving it in stone.)
Generally, shortened words and phrases are called abbreviations. These are broken down into specific kinds of abbreviations, but even the experts don’t agree on what the various names mean. Some abbreviations are made up of initial letters where you don’t try to pronounce it as a word such as SPQR or HMS.
In 1943, the guys at Bell Laboratories came up with the word acronym to mean an abbreviation that can be pronounced. Sometimes they’re made up of the initial letters such as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), radar (radio detection and ranging), and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Others are made from putting parts of the words together such as sonar (sound navigation and ranging) and INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization). Usually, though, they’re all called acronyms.
Every area of business and industry uses acronyms. As tech writers, we tend to just automatically learn the ones that we need. From working with GM, I know that MSRP means manufacturers suggested retail price. And from his time working with BP, Bryan knows that CNG is Compressed Natural Gas. Where the problem arises is that different definitions are used in different situations. PMS to a medical professional means something quite different from what it means to a professional printer.
To add to the potential for misunderstanding, an abbreviation can have different meanings in different parts of the world. For example, PDO is a common abbreviation. To a meteorologist it stands for pacific decadal oscillation. In the UK it can mean potentially damaging operation or Pilots Development Officer. In the US it can be Public Defender’s Office or paid days off. In Australia it means Postal Delivery Officer – what we’d call a postman or a mailman.
This week’s exercise is to find at least two meanings for each of these familiar acronyms. For extra credit, you can also identify the business or industry they’re used in.
AAA AKA AMA CIO ISO
NDA PAC SALT SME SOP
Here are the answers:
In case you’re wondering, TLA is an acronym for three-letter acronym.
AAA
abdominal aortic aneurysm
– medical American Automobile Association
– business arrival and assembly area
– US military
AKA
above knee amputation
– medical also known as
– business
AMA
Academy of Model Aeronautics
– model planes against medical advice
– medical American Management Association
– business American Marketing Association
– marketing American Medical Association
– medical American Motorcyclist Association
CIO
Central Intelligence Organisation
– secret police in Zimbabwe Chief Information Officer
– business Congress of Industrial Organizations
– union
ISO
Infrared Space Observatory
– European Space Agency’s infrared telescope inter school course
– US military International Organization for Standardization
– business/manufacturing International Socialist Organization
– politics
NDA
National Defence Academy
– military (India) (Japan) New Drug Application
– US government next day delivery
– shipping non-disclosure agreement
– business (These are only four out of some 20 possibilities)
PAC
political action committee
– politics production activity control
– manufacturing public affairs council
– social
SALT
Society for Applied Learning Technology
– education Speech Application Language Tags
– communication Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (Agreement)
– politics (BTW, SALT treaty is redundant)
SME
small and medium enterprise
– marketing subject matter expert
– technical writing
SOP
sales and operations planning (used by APICS)
– manufacturing standard operating procedure
– general statement of purpose
– higher learning