Constant Content

Good Moring,

I have a question about acronyms. Is it wise to use acroynms in content writing for the net? I use textalyser to figure out the keywords, however, it doesn't count acronyms such as SEM or SEO. I'm sure there are more sophisticated programs out there that do count acroynms.

If acronyms are used is it neccessary to put the actual meaning in parenthesis behind the acronym each time or is it enough that once established what the acronym stands for to drop the meaning? Also, when you follow the acronym with the explanation in parenthesis, should each word be capitalized?

Maybe it's just me, but I keep wondering why bother with acronyms if the entire meaning must always accompany the acronym.

One more thing... is Strunk and White obsolete? I took yet another writing class a few years ago and the prof insisted that Strunk and White would forever be the go to guys when it comes to writing, etc. (et cetera)

My use of acronyms is officially on hold until I hear asap before I need to know pdq.

Thanks for any and all input.

T Opdycke

ACK! I just realized I underlined Strunk and White, the authors of The Elements of Style. Well, it's early here and I've not had my coffee.

Happy Writing All!

T

It's fine if you just identify the acronym the first time. For example,

"When using search engine optimization (SEO) . . . " (and then refer to it as SEO throughout the article).

Any acronyms that you feel are common enough don't need to be defined - NBA, FBI, etc. If you were to write out the names of these, the words would be capitalized because they are names, titles, or proper nouns. Search engine optimization doesn't need to be capitalized, and shouldn't be.

Personally, I think if people are looking for articles that talk about SEO, they're going to type in "SEO" as a primary search term. But you can also switch between the two throughout the document in order to include both.

In my opinion, it's not only important to honor the old guys who are responsible for making written communication standardized and readable for everyone, it's also important to keep up with the times. Writing for the web requires that more than any other medium, so as long as your writing is intelligible, clean, and follows rules consistently rather than haphazardly, you should be fine.

Does this help?
Ed

Thanks, Ed. Indeed, it does help. In my most humble opinion Strunk and White are still the go to guys and I'm finding it challenging to learn and keep up with the ever-changing rules of content writing ala web. Any one know of a good book to keep handy for questions concerning writing for the web?

Thanks again for your input and direction.

T

What I do to keep up with "web style" is make sure that I read respected, yet somewhat trendy, online publications, like Slate.com. If they do it, I'd say you can too.

And you'll still be right if you follow S&W.

There are just some delicate changes that happen almost instantaneously. For example, an ambiguous pronoun had, for a long time, a male default (him, he). Then it was him/her, him or her, etc. Now it's perfectly okay to use "her" or "she," for the ambiguous pronoun. I don't know if Strunk and White covers that.

Thanks for the input. I'll check into slate.com.

T