Re: Q. Acronyms -- Keep The Caps?

["Doug R. Carlson" <drcarlso -at- CIG -dot- MOT -dot- COM>]

Hi,

I agree that a Style Guide is the correct thing to do.
At least for consistency.

Every time I pick up a newspaper and read an article that contains some
name of some Government agency or a concept, or a program, invariably
the author reduces the name into an acronym later in the article.

(I think a good techwhirler would spell out the acronym in question, right
where it is used, at a minimum.)

My short attention span forces me to go back and re-read the stuff
where the original agency is mentioned. I need to really read to find it,
not just "scan" for it, as the name is buried in the text - because it
is not initial-capped. If the agency name were initial-capped, then,
when scanning the text, the agency name would be easy to find.

So, is it a good idea to have your readers go hunting for the
"definition" of an acronym? I think there might be an ease-of-use issue here.

I vote for keeping the caps.

Note: Even though the "sig" file says I work for a company,
      this E-mail is purely my opinion, my rants, and my random brain-dumps.


> Bergen, Jane wrote:
> >
> > The answer is....depends on who you listen to. In my "Que's Computer
> > User's Dictionary," they DO use capitalized letters for some acronyms.
> > For example, CAD (which would look strange in lower case) and the
> > "Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring Kit" consistently capitalizes
> > HTML.

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   Thank You,
   Doug Carlson - MOTOROLA                 drcarlso -at- cig -dot- mot -dot- com
   Technical Education & Documentation
   1 Nelson C. White Prkwy, Mundelein IL 60060
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