TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
It seems to me that the answer to the question originally asked--should you
spell out first use of "commonly understood" acronyms and abbreviations--really
depends on the audience. If you're sure you audience knows what ASCII is, you
probably don't need to tell them. For example, would you coworker have spelled
out the real meaning of radar?
But you really need to be sure that your intended audience, your primary
audience if you will, either knows what the acronym stands for or absolutely,
positively doesn't need to know. In the absense of concrete information to the
contrary, I would err on the side of providing the explanation of those terms.
Notice how many on THIS list didn't know the meaning of ASCII?
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, July 15-18 in Washington, DC
The Help Technology Conference, August 21-24 in Boston, MA
Details and online registration at http://www.SolutionsEvents.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
