Sunday, December 30, 2007

Acronym Wanna Be's

I hope I am not the only one who has noticed this. Many times in a class, seminar, or book, the teachers will spell out a word then address every letter of the word and explain how they all relate to the topic of discussion. Some of you may have seen this with the word TEAM. (Together everybody achieves more). I'm OK with this when it works. I know there are acronyms like Scuba and Laser that actually stand for something. My problem is with people who try to make a word into an acronym or a word you can easily remember when it obviously doesn't work. These are the same people who like to force puzzle pieces where they do not belong. I have included an example below appropriately using the word forced

F-Forced to use words you usually wouldn't choose because you're trying to spell something.
O-Obviously Contrived. If the first letter doesn't work or explain your concept don't use it!
R-Ridiculously Unnatural word choices and placement.
C-Coincidence that this word represents what we are talking about?
E-Employed too often and hardly ever works.
D-Doubt is put in my mind by what you are teaching and your credibility is killed.

You may be thinking "Aren't there more important issues to worry about in the world"? Of course there are and that is exactly why the use of wanna be acronyms have gone unchecked and have grown to become the problem it is today. I think it's time to act and although we may be few in numbers we can make a difference. We can start by making sure if we ever employ this technique that we do it right and that if we ever see it used sloppily we publicly shame the author or presenter in order to keep it from happening again. If there were only accurate and appropriate acronyms used in this country then we would be in a much better position to start working on the weightier issues. You can do it.

Y-You are the one who can do it.
O-Only you can do it.
U-Unless you don't read my blog, then someone else will have to.

3 comments:

Beckalita said...

W-Wow!
H-Hey!
A-Amazing!
T-True!

T-Thanks!
H-Hello!
E-Eh!

Emily said...

R - Rolling
O - On the
F - Floor
L - Laughing
! - !!!!!!!

Maui said...

You should report all of them to the

A - American
A - Association
A - Against
A - Acronym
A - Abuse