Acronyms and Abbreviations

[Bypasser8]

When you pronounce the entire word and when do you pronounce the acronym or abbreviation?

The questions I am interested in are:

1. When reading a paper silently and an abbreviation (abbr.) is defined, does one continue to pronounce the entire word, or substitute the abbreviated form? 
2. When reading a paper silently and an acronym (ACN) is defined, does one continue to pronounce the entire word, or substitute the acronym?
3. If, when reading a paper, one substitutes the acronym rather than repeating the full word every time it is read, do they risk learning the acronym but forgetting the full word? 
4. When one is speaking to another does one pronounce the acronym (brevity) or the full word (clarity). Note: In SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk has banned the use of excessive acronyms in order to avoid confusion for newcomers and miscommunication within the team. 

Now I understand this is a matter of opinion, but my thought is: given a consolidated consensus, patterns may emerge that guidelines can be drawn from in order to rationally approach future cases. I'll post my analysis after the study.

I appreciate any and all participation. Biologic context is inconsequential. Examples below are arbitrary. Please include the following in a reply (color coded for instructional clarity):

the full word of your choice (the acronym/abbreviation); your pronunciation

• Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF); epidermal growth factor
• Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR); epidermal growth factor receptor
• Cyclin-dependant kinase 1 (CDK1); cdk1
• Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC); non-small cell lung cancer
• Prolactin (PRL); prolactin
• human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2); her2
• avian erythroblastosis oncogene B (ErbB); erb-B
• mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK); map-k
• protein kinase C (PKC); protein kinase C
• protein kinase A (PKA); protein kinase A
• phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K); phosphoinositide 3 kinase
• phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate (PIP₂); phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate
• phosphatidylinositol trisphosphate (PIP₃); phosphatidylinositol trisphosphate
• signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT); stat
• Janus kinase (JAK); Jak
• adenosine triphosphate (ATP); ATP
• Interferon (IFN); interferon
• electron transport chain (ETC); electron transport chain
• (reduced) nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺/NADH); NAD/NADH
• (reduced) flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD/FADH₂); FAD/FADH

The point is: are there general rules here, or is it all preference?

Christopher Melvin Kenyon

[swansont]

2 hours ago, Bypasser8 said:

When you pronounce the entire word and when do you pronounce the acronym or abbreviation?

The questions I am interested in are:

1. When reading a paper silently and an abbreviation (abbr.) is defined, does one continue to pronounce the entire word, or substitute the abbreviated form? 
2. When reading a paper silently and an acronym (ACN) is defined, does one continue to pronounce the entire word, or substitute the acronym?
3. If, when reading a paper, one substitutes the acronym rather than repeating the full word every time it is read, do they risk learning the acronym but forgetting the full word? 
4. When one is speaking to another does one pronounce the acronym (brevity) or the full word (clarity). Note: In SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk has banned the use of excessive acronyms in order to avoid confusion for newcomers and miscommunication within the team. 

Now I understand this is a matter of opinion, but my thought is: given a consolidated consensus, patterns may emerge that guidelines can be drawn from in order to rationally approach future cases. I'll post my analysis after the study

1 and 2 are up to the reader. 3, I think, is yes. The standard practice is to use the full expression and only use the abbreviation after that. Common acronyms are often excepted from this practice. 

For 4, I will note that we were forbidden from using abbreviations or symbols when I was teaching for the navy. You would not say f=ma, you would say force is mass times acceleration. Unfortunately the rest of the military uses abbreviations to excess, which is often a source of confusion. I think Mr. Musk is correct.

 

2 hours ago, Bypasser8 said:

The point is: are there general rules here, or is it all preference?

Christopher Melvin Kenyon

Preference, largely.

[StringJunky]

9 hours ago, swansont said:

1 and 2 are up to the reader. 3, I think, is yes. The standard practice is to use the full expression and only use the abbreviation after that. Common acronyms are often excepted from this practice. 

For 4, I will note that we were forbidden from using abbreviations or symbols when I was teaching for the navy. You would not say f=ma, you would say force is mass times acceleration. Unfortunately the rest of the military uses abbreviations to excess, which is often a source of confusion. I think Mr. Musk is correct.

 

Preference, largely.

i think also it depends on the target audience whether they use acronyms straight off the bat or not without prior indication. I think, in most professional circumstances, the tendency is towards abbreviation which becomes part of the standard lexicon of that industry

[Strange]

17 hours ago, Bypasser8 said:

• If, when reading a paper, one substitutes the acronym rather than repeating the full word every time it is read, do they risk learning the acronym but forgetting the full word? 

This is almost inevitable for acronyms that are used frequently enough. I wonder how many people know what laser, radar and scuba are acronyms of (or even that they are acronyms). And why should they? They have become English words in their own right now.

Even with more recent acronyms like RAM (which looks like an acronym because it is in caps) I'm sure there are a lot of people who don't know what it stands for. And I have seen increasing use of Ram and ram so this is on the way to becoming a word, as well.

And then there is the opposite effect where some words that are not acronyms are treated as if they were. The most obvious one in my field is "flash" (a type of memory) which is often written as FLASH or Flash even though it is just the standard English word flash.

[swansont]

2 minutes ago, Strange said:

This is almost inevitable for acronyms that are used frequently enough. I wonder how many people know what laser, radar and scuba are acronyms of (or even that they are acronyms). And why should they? They have become English words in their own right now.

Even with more recent acronyms like RAM (which looks like an acronym because it is in caps)

That's a good observation — acronyms are supposed to be all caps, but we don't do that anymore for the three you mentioned