Minimize abbreviations

One legal scholar calls abbreviations a “menace to prose” (Kimble, 2006). Abbreviations were once intended to serve the reader by shortening long phrases. However, abbreviations have proliferated so much in current bureaucratic 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.

Use “nicknames”

The best solution is to find a simplified name for the entity you want to abbreviate. This gives readers meaningful content that helps them remember what you’re talking about. It may be a bit longer, but the gain in clarity and ease of reading is worth it. In most cases, you don’t need to “define” this nickname the first time you use it, unless you are using lots of different nicknames. Especially when you are using a nickname for the major topic of your document, don’t insult your readers and waste their time. For example, in a paper about Resource Advisory Councils, don’t tell them that when you say “Council” you mean “Resource Advisory Council.”

If everyone knows an abbreviation, use it without explanation

There’s a short list of abbreviations that have entered common usage. When you use them, don’t define them, you’re just taking up space and annoying your reader. But make sure the abbreviation you’re using is on the list. Examples include IBM, ATM, BMW, PhD, CIA.

A closely related guideline is, “don’t define something that’s obvious to the reader.” 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. The person wrote to the agency, and now the agency is writing back. The reader is not going to be confused about what FAA means! It just looks stuffy and bureaucratic to repeat it.

If you must abbreviate

Of course, there are some situations in which you can’t avoid an abbreviation. Always define an abbreviation the first time you use it, for example, “The American Journal of Plain Language Studies” (AJPLA). And limit the number of abbreviations you use in one document to no more than three, and preferably two. Spell out everything else. If you’ve used abbreviations for the two or three most common items, it’s unlikely that the other items occur so frequently you can’t spell them out every time.

When you are considering whether to use an abbreviation, or how many you can get away with in a document, remember that they should make it easier for your readers. If they make it harder, you have failed to write for your reader.