Re: When to Spell Out Acronyms

["Melissa Nelson" <melmis36 -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

  I also do military documentation and I place the acronym table at the
  beginning of the document and still have to spell it out the first time it
  is used, no matter how common it is...the rational being that the reader
  will not want to go back to the table to find the meaning of it. But the
  table still has to be there...

  Military documentation has a set of rules all its own sometimes..and they do
  not need to make sense. Once I learned that, my job became a lot easier. :)

  Melissa
      ______________________________________________________________

    From:  Al Geist <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>
    To:  techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
    Subject:  Re: When to Spell Out Acronyms
    Date:  Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:21:20 -0500
    >
    >    David Castro wrote:
    >
    >      The standard for the government documents I write (for the Navy) is
    to
    >      spell out the acronym the first time it appears, no matter how
    common
    >      the acronym (or abbreviation) is. PC? Spell it out. DoD? Spell it
    out.
    >      We also include a table at the end with all of the acronyms in the
    >      document included, in case someone comes into the document after
    the
    >      acronym has been spelled out, and needs to know what it stands for.
    >
    >    If you place the table at the beginning of the document, then
    wouldn't that
    >    satisfy the criteria of spelling it out the first time it
    appears?  If so,
    >    that would save you the time rearranging when your former first
    instance it
    >    not longer the first instance because of revisions....phew...need a
    cup of
    >    coffee after that last sentence.
    >    Al
    >
    >    --
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