Comments on: Why Acronyms are FUBAR, part II

By: Don McDonnell

Don McDonnell — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:28:41 +0000

As my teenager daughter would say Justin…”OMG..the use of TLA was…like…totally TIC!”

Good stuff. Keep it coming as our PR folks need straight talk on copy from a reporter who was never shy about cutting to the point!

Cheers,

Don McDonnell

By: Justin Rubner

Justin Rubner — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:27:15 +0000

Don, I’m so glad you and your team find this food for thought. I must say something rather funny, though. I can’t remember what TLAs are. Which kind of makes my whole point. Even after searching for it on Google, I still found 20 things TLA could be.

Good question about ERP, or enterprise resource planning. I would go back to this: If it is your core offering, and if that is how your customers talk, then by all means use it. If not, I would strongly urge you to look at other options…And economy of words isn’t economical at all if the reader has to stop and think to remember what ERP stands for. Or worse, type it into Google.

We all need to lose our obsession with acronyms and radically change the way we think about communications. We are burying ourselves in these made-up words that will likely be passe in a few years.

By: Don McDonnell

Don McDonnell — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:27:00 +0000

Justin:

Being an ex-military guy myself I feel your pain as a former journalist who must have had to wade through piles of TLA’s day in and day out first in the military and then as a reporter.

If you have a laser focus on your target audience (no military pun intended) and that audience accepts certain longstanding and established TLA’s might they not allow the employment of word economy?

Is it ever ok in your view to use TLA’s that are well established market TLAs …like say “ERP”…. or are they a complete no no in all cases in your view as a journalist/writer?

As always enjoy your posts and send them to our PR and writing team here as valuable food for thought (and entertainment)!

Don