Limit the number of abbreviations you use in one document to no more than three, and preferably two. Always define an abbreviation the first time you use it, for example, “The American Journal of Plain Language Studies (AJPLA).” Of course, there are some situations in which you can’t avoid an abbreviation.
The user is not going to be confused about what FAA means! If you must abbreviate The person wrote to the agency, and now the agency is writing back. Examples include IBM, ATM, BMW, PhD, CIA, and FBI.Ī closely related guideline is, “don’t define something that’s obvious to the user.” Most federal agencies, when writing a letter responding to an inquiry, insist on defining the agency name, as in, “Thank you for writing to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about your concerns.” The letterhead says the name of the agency. Make sure the abbreviation you’re using is on the list. When you use them, don’t define them-you’re just taking up space and annoying your user. There’s a short list of abbreviations that have entered common usage.
If everyone knows an abbreviation, use it without explanation Small-quantity handlers of universal wastes For example, in a paper about Resource Advisory Councils, don’t tell them that when you say “Council” you mean the “Resource Advisory Council.” For When you’re using a nickname for the main topic you’re writing about, don’t insult your users and waste their time. In most cases, you don’t need to define this nickname the first time you use it, unless you’re using lots of different nicknames. It may be a bit longer, but the gain in clarity and ease of reading is worth it. This gives readers meaningful content that helps them remember what you’re talking about.
The best solution is to find a simplified name for the entity you want to abbreviate. However, abbreviations have proliferated so much in government writing that they constantly require the reader to look back to earlier pages, or to consult an appendix, to puzzle out what’s being said. Abbreviations were once intended to serve the audience by shortening long phrases. One legal scholar calls abbreviations a “menace to prose” (Kimble, 2006). > Choose your words carefully Minimize abbreviations Tips for starting a plain language program.
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