You know, I wasn’t always a world class, globally famous and widely celebrated writer. Hard to imagine, I know. But it’s true. There was a time before that. Not when I was humble. Heavens, that would be silly. There was a time before I wrote creatively. 

Alright, that’s a big old lie however I did attend an institute of higher learning which taught me a different kind of writing. I do feel that the job of a writer is partially to be a learner. Go out and learn things. Many different things. The more disparate the better. That way you have a wider breadth of knowledge from which to infuse your work. It’s like making an herbal tea or something. The more foreign the ingredients, the more you can charge. 

Today’s little tip, however, actually comes from my scientific days. There’s a whole new kind of formatting you have to learn in order to write “academically approved literature.” Several formats, actually. Each with their own niggling, fussy details that will drop your grade each time you get them wrong. And the professors really don’t care if you forgot if it was their class or Microbiology that wanted Chicago style over APA for giggles. 

At any rate, one thing you must do regardless of your professor’s love for outdated publishing standards is define your terms and acronyms. Specifically, before you start using them. And it really doesn’t matter how common you think they are. Sure, if I was writing an international thriller and my main character had a prominent job in New York, it might seem pretty obvious to say that she simply works for the “U.N.” 

Course, when she starts talking about the STDs from her job, you might get a few raised eyebrows. Depending on the age of the reader, I suppose. I’ll never stop smiling whenever a mathematician mentions them. 

However, regardless of how widespread or obvious you may think an acronym is, it is still good practice to write it out. Because with the wide variety of specialty fields out there, and we’re not even going to get into different languages, there’s probably a whole lot of alternative definitions which could spring to a reader’s mind before the definition you’re intending to use. And maybe what you think is common knowledge isn’t that common at all. Clarity is of the utmost importance and, honestly, there is nothing lost by a character stating at the beginning of the book, “Hi, I’m Claire. I work for the local health unit studying Ulnar Neuropathy. Specifically damage caused by Sexually Transmitted Diseases. What, why did you think I worked for the United Nations?”

So when writing your story, ask yourself:

Have I properly written out any acronyms before using them (no exceptions)?