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roland stockham · 19-09-2019, 09:15

The convention in academic writing is to use the full name first time then give the abreviation in brackets. After that you just use the abreviation so state of charge (SOC)... maby we could adopt that system here. Thanks for the post.

Shrew · 19-09-2019, 09:24

I deal with this professionally every day. I'm in the enterprise software space and deal with critical escalations (most with internal engineers (colleagues). People who work with me regularly hear three things:

1) We're not charging you by the word, feel free to use as many as is needed to clearly convey the scope of your question or problem.

2) This is a "No Pronoun Zone" (Too often people start tossing undefined pronouns, which cause confusion when there are multiple components involved (e.g. "IT" what is 'it"?)

3) Acronyms must be defined before their repeated use. (e.g: State of Charge (Soc). Now you're free to use SoC throughout that document or discussion thread.

Nicholson58 · 19-09-2019, 09:35

When I was a lad, (not an acronym) LOL meant “little old lady”. I have seen exactly this type of confusion often.

I am a PE (professional engineer) and wrote or corrected a lot of technical reports and machinery operating instructions. If you need to be understood you must write whole compete sentences with real words. In my case, and probably here to some extent, the readers are not English as a primary language. Not only do the acronyms mean nothing but the actual words may be totally foreign. Think of those comic instructions we sometimes get with Asian made goods.

In computer and communications and other electronic equipment instructions we still see acronyms and jargon tossed around as though the writer thinks of it as a primary school reader. The concepts and work required may be quite simple but the text is hieroglyphics.

Kerry1 · 19-09-2019, 11:25

I agree with everything you say...but..."NIH"?????

Shrew · 19-09-2019, 12:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsky49

As a technical writer, I have also tried to tailor my communications to the intended audience. You write in a different manner when addressing a church building committee, than you do for the Morbidity and Mortality Committee at say, NIH.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kerry1

I agree with everything you say...but..."NIH"?????

The QUOTE feature helps, since the post you were referring to was on the previous page.

National Institute of Health (NIH).

Which is a very nice example of point #3 I listed in my comment in post # 17.

MJH · 19-09-2019, 12:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsky49

While this comes from a thread on Solar Charge Controllers, when I finished writing it I thought it might be more apropos in a more general setting.

Oh, come on! Surely you can add more jargon/abbreviations to make this post entirely unintelligible!

Your fingers can't be so tired such that you are unable to provide actual complete words. And that goes for the rest of you, with your high-falutin' idioms, vernacular and argot!

Seriously, in both written and oral communication, if you wish to be understood by your audience, use commonly understood terms - even if that means "dumbing it down".

As a young engineer many years ago, I learned such a lesson, much to my chagrin, when dealing with an automation system in a school in West Virginia. I couldn't understand why there were continuing issues regarding a "Sequence of Operations" (a narrative describing how various equipment would systematically start, run, interact, etc.), when I had so clearly described this on the blue prints.

After several written responses to the school/custodian/principal to no avail, I personally visited the school to address the problem(s). It turned out that the head Custodian in charge of the school (who originally had been hired many years before to shovel coal into a boiler) could not read!

I then spent the afternoon going over the system in a hands-on manner with the gentleman. Though he could barely read, he was smart and quickly picked up the operating details of the various systems. Problem solved.

As a technical writer, I have also tried to tailor my communications to the intended audience. You write in a different manner when addressing a church building committee, than you do for the Morbidity and Mortality Committee at say, NIH. Occasionally you have to put the hubris aside. I can hurl jargon with the best of them, but if it requires a simplified version, so be it! Know your audience.

And another favorite bit of advice for communicators:
"Eschew excess verbiage"
Mark Twain

The bottom line in writing is that you never use an abbreviation that hasn't previously been explained in that same body. For example, State of Charge (SOC). NOTHING should be assumed, i.e. OP?

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

redsky49 · 19-09-2019, 17:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kerry1

I agree with everything you say...but..."NIH"?????

I was wondering if anyone would catch that.

**Jim Cate** · 19-09-2019, 17:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsky49

I was wondering if anyone would catch that.

And in some environments it means "not invented here", a mantra for using in house designs solely... often to the customers disadvantage!

Jim

coastalexplorer · 19-09-2019, 22:47

When I made a similar appeal over a year ago citing the over use of Acronyms and the fact that so many people sign up on Cruisers Forum to learn and benefit from the experience of our experts: I was insulted by several very sarcastic responses,

Like $ meant Dollar. So I hope this issue gets taken more seriously this time around?

mglonnro · 20-09-2019, 00:02

I think there's a broader context here, as well, and that's why I usually use 'kitchen' instead of 'galley', 'park the boat' instead of 'moor the boat' etc. when writing the blog.

I've never quite learned the boating vocabulary in either Finnish or Swedish, the two languages I speak the most. (Not in English either.)

Somehow I've also resisted the idea of attempting to, since I've experienced some exclusion based on this very vocabulary. It's easy to form in-groups based on whatever and then look down at the outsiders

**JPA Cate** · 20-09-2019, 00:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by mglonnro

I think there's a broader context here, as well, and that's why I usually use 'kitchen' instead of 'galley', 'park the boat' instead of 'moor the boat' etc. when writing the blog.

I've never quite learned the boating vocabulary in either Finnish or Swedish, the two languages I speak the most. (Not in English either.)

Somehow I've also resisted the idea of attempting to, since I've experienced some exclusion based on this very vocabulary. It's easy to form in-groups based on whatever and then look down at the outsiders

Hi, [a slightly friendlier form of "hello"] mglonnro,

I'm only one insignificant USA born elderly female, so I'm asking for you to treat me kindly here. Personally, I would prefer for you to say "galley" and "moor" because i have thousands of hours in the galley, and also, moored.

But I definitely understand the problem. When (with my poor French and Spanish ) we go somewhere French or Spanish speaking, I try to use as many as possible of words that are cognate (the same) in both languages. It is my poor, small attempt to make it easier for others.

I'd like to add, that when you write well in English, no one thinks there might be a problem, and therefore doesn't make gentle allowances. I regret if anything the Yanks have written here was unkind because of language difficulties.

Ann

Pint76 · 20-09-2019, 00:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by motion30

I agree. Often time i do not understand the abreavations

Me too!

mglonnro · 20-09-2019, 01:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Hi, [a slightly friendlier form of "hello"] mglonnro,

I'm only one insignificant USA born elderly female, so I'm asking for you to treat me kindly here.

You're lovely!

We just came back from London, by the way, and we both adored the way people casually added a lot of affectionate words into their sentences: "love, dear, darling, ..."