Using Acronyms and Abbreviations for Concise Writing
Professional writing often requires an author to pay attention to the word count and content length. Some periodicals will not accept documents that exceed the maximum count. Several online platforms have restrictions about the number of characters in your content. If the text length is too long, the author must break up the text or edit it down.
Abbreviations and acronyms can come in handy to cut down those last few words or characters. When used appropriately, they serve as a verbal shorthand that maintains the clarity of your message. Our Word Counter tool will also help you stay on track by giving you accurate character and word tallies.
What is an abbreviation?
Abbreviations are shorter forms of common words. In American English writing, they are often designated with a final period. You will find this space-saving pattern in several common titles: Mr., Mrs., Dr., and Ph.D.
Other abbreviated words contain the first few letters of the word followed by a period. People frequently abbreviate the days of the week and names of months: Jan., Feb., Mon., and Wed.
In most cases, abbreviations will lower your character count, but they will not decrease the word count of a document. Wed. and Wednesday both count as a single word in written content.
What is an acronym?
An acronym is a way of shortening common phrases by only including the first letter of each word. This practice saves time for both the reader and the writer. Most readers will know that the FBI is the Federal Bureau of Investigations without writing out the full term. While new acronyms have developed due to social media, others originated in the early 1900s when telegram companies charged by the letter.
In professional writing, the accepted practice is to use the unabbreviated term in the first instance in a document so that reader has a reference point. A business report might talk about an enterprise resource planning system and refer to it as ERP for the rest of the content.
Linguists make a distinction between two acronym types. In the common acronym, speakers pronounce the abbreviated form as a word as in NASA or AWOL. In the initialized acronym form, the speaker pronounces each letter separately, like FBI or LOL.
Common Abbreviations
Using abbreviated words saves space on forms, maps, and other documents. In addresses, the type of roadway is usually shortened. You will see St. instead of street and Blvd. instead of boulevard.
State and country names also get cut down. In American English, the postal service abbreviations have become acceptable for most writing formats. All the states have a two-letter abbreviation: MI for Michigan and ND for North Dakota.
Other frequent abbreviations have their origins in hand-written note-taking. In scientific literature, it is acceptable to use min. and max. instead of minimum and maximum. People taking stock of inventory saved time by labeling boxes of miscellaneous items as misc.
Acronyms in the Government
The government and military process scores of written documents every day. Over the years, this has led to the frequent use of acronyms to label institutions. Some of these shortened designations have become more familiar than the full title.
- DOD: Department of Defense
- DOJ: Department of Justice
- POTUS: President of the United States
- NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- FDA: Food and Drug Administration
The military uses abbreviated terms to describe situations, equipment and personnel quickly.
- AWOL: Absent without Leave
- NCO: Non-Commissioned Officer
- ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
Jargon
When professionals in the same industry correspond with one another, they often use abbreviated phrases to save time. To those outside the profession, these acronyms may send them to a search engine to decipher the terms. However, insiders will know the meaning right away.
Business Usage
Business writers litter their documents with shortened phrases. Most acronym forms represent basic business concepts or features used by many organizations.
- ROI: Return on Investment
- B2B: Business to Business
- SMB: Small to Medium-Sized Business
- TOS: Terms of Service
- CMS: Customer Management System
Medical Usage
The medical world is another place where shortened phrases save time on orders. Departments, tests and treatments often have abbreviated names.
- ER or ED: Emergency Room or Department
- ICU: Intensive Care Unit
- MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imagery
- IV: Intravenous
Technology Usage
People who work with computers and technology are well-known for their use of jargon. Abbreviated terms abound in both web development and marketing.
- SaaS: Software as a Service
- UI: User Interface
- UX: User Experience
- SEO: Search Engine Optimization
- API: Application Programming Interface
Social Media Acronyms
Concerns about text length have led to a new generation of abbreviated forms. On Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, people pepper their comments with abbreviated forms that stand in for longer phrases. In some cases, these phrases reflect the status of the sender. Other shortened terms hide language that might not be acceptable to some readers.
Filler Phrases
Authors may use shortened forms of connecting, adverbial phrases to decrease their character counts.
- BTW: By the way
- IMO and IMHO: In my opinion and In my humble opinion
- ICYMI: In case you missed it
- LMK: Let me know
- TTYL: Talk to you later
- BRB: Be right back
Shortened Responses
An acronym can describe a user's response to a comment.
- SMH: Shaking my head
- LOL: Laughing out loud
- ROFL: Rolling on the floor laughing
- LMAO: Laughing my a** off
- FTW: For the win
NSFW Phrases
NSFW is short for "not safe for work." It represents posts or phrases that you might not want to display publicly.
- IDGAF: I don't give a f**k
- FML: F**k my life
- STFU: Shut the f**k up
Verbal Shortcuts and Editor Expectations
Abbreviated terms are convenient for informal settings like texts and tweets. For professional writing or formal essays, you will want to check with the publication about its standard practices for shortened phrases. Where possible, these verbal shortcuts can help you attain the perfect content length for your next writing project.