Today’s WaPo has a short review of Army Regulation 25-52 (AR 25-52) on “standardized abbreviations, brevity codes and acronyms (ABCAs).”
We can mock this regulation to our heart’s content. In his book Augustine Laws Norman Augustine specifies “Acronyms and abbreviations should be quest to the maximum extent possible to make trivial ideas profound. – Q.E.D.”
While this is fun, acronyms and abbreviations, properly used can shorten long sentences and add clarity. Jargon, properly used, makes communications crisper and more concise. This is especially important to soldiers. It can also be used to make the speaker seem much more important to outsiders.
If the authors of AR 25-52 will contact me, I will award them a one-year free membership in the Society for the Elimination of Acronyms (SEA).
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