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Iain Harrison <iharriso -at- SCTCORP -dot- COM> wrote:
>I beg to differ. Experienced writers assess their audience, >and explain acronyms that the target reader may not >understand. [,,,] To explain this term to someone who is able >to do the job would be at best patronising, at worst downright >insulting.
Not necessarily. True, there is no point explaining acronyms that carry
more meaning for the audience than what they stand for. For example,
more people probably have a sense of what RAM is than of what Random
Access Memory is.
However, just because an audience knows the meaning of an acronym
doesn't mean that its members wouldn't find the complete phrase easier
to read. That might be especially true if the sentence required several
acronyms.
--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
(bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com) (604) 421-7189 or 687-2133 X. 269
www.outlawcommunications.com (updated 17 Feb 1998)
"Dow Jones going into a stall,
Spray paint saying it on every wall,
The rise was fine,
Now it's time to decline and fall."
--Richard Thompson
