Grammar help "a RMA" or "an RMA"?

Subject: Grammar help "a RMA" or "an RMA"?
From: Shawn <shawn -at- cohodata -dot- com>
To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 6 May 2014 16:48:04 -0700

Thank you all for your remarkably quick and learned responses to my query.

I occasional allow the results of a Google search to sway my opinion,
however, in this situation, the results only managed to perplex me. It is
rather interesting that there is such inconsistency in regards to whether
"a" or "an" is used before "RMA".

Henceforth, I shall use "an". :)

Best regards,
Shawn


On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 3:40 PM, Shawn <shawn -at- cohodata -dot- com> wrote:

> Greetings all,
>
> I am experimenting with ProWriting Aid (see this review:
> http://robinbneal.com/2014/03/23/robo-grader-review-prowritingaid-google-add-on/).
> When you are a one-person tech doc team, even a mediocre tool like this is
> pretty useful for proofing.
>
> While running a grammar check, it pointed out the following sentence:
> "...10 business days after receipt of a RMA number."
> and suggested that I write this as "an RMA".
>
> I understand that if a word begins with a vowel... but I don't think it
> does. However, for the sake of curiosity, I decided to do a Google search
> for ["a RMA" or "an RMA"].What I found was absolutely no consistency. Even
> within a single document, both "a" and "an" were used. :-O
>
> I am inclined to consistently use "a RMA", throughout my document.
>
> Can anyone offer some advice?
>
> Thanks
>
> --
> *Shawn Connelly*
> Technical writer
>
>
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