There are many problems with relying on acronyms and abbreviations when writing content for translation, but the loss of the initial meaning of your writing is the biggest one. An exception would be the more universally used acronyms, for instance International Organization for Standardization (ISO) but most acronyms do not translate well. Why?īecause it is rare, if at all, that an acronym actually translates well into another language. This is particularly true if your global content is going to be translated into other languages. While these habits may work alright around your own organization, if you are a technical writer and are considering writing global content that will be published (like technical guides, instructions for use, quick reference guides, protocols, submissions, etc.) then avoiding acronyms is a must. Submitting a project for QA is easier than submitting it for Quality Assurance.Īn acronym (from Latin acro- meaning “beginning” + -onym meaning “word, name”) is a pronounceable word formed mostly (but not always) from the initial letters of a descriptive name or title.Requesting from an audio engineer to determine if there is any OST in a video is faster than saying On Screen Text.Asking a colleague to check if a MKTG PROJ is suitable for MT, it is way easier than to say Marketing Project for Machine Translation.Talking (or writing) about TEP for a PROJ is much easier than spelling out Translation, Editing, and Proofreading for a Project in your emails, texts, and chats.I know this for a fact because in the localization industry we have a lot of acronyms and use numerous abbreviations! Here are a few examples of the acronyms and abbreviations that we use: So using acronyms and abbreviations in your everyday speech makes communication easier and faster.

Acronyms and abbreviations exist in all areas of life from medicine to religion, but can complicate document translation, among other types of localization.īut why do we tend to use acronyms and abbreviations so often?Because it takes less time to say or write the first initial of each word or an abbreviated form of the full word than to spell out every single word. This is because you know what they are meant to represent in your industry and in your own organization, and that your colleagues will understand what you say. When you have been in your specific industry for any amount of time, acronyms and abbreviations begin to creep up in your everyday speech.

Abbreviations for words using leters