(Click on the pic to get the full effect of this alphabet soup.)

We are steeped in a stew of initials, living in a time of ultimate contractions. Where did the term “POTUS” come from? Maybe we are seeing a collective reaction to the bewildering quantity of information coming at us. Maybe it’s a simple sense that “LOL” saves time, and “LMAO” gets the point across without any need for superfluous adjectives. IDK where this sea of letters originated. I do know that the letters serve sometimes to help people find their tribe. VCDA and VSF (“Vaya con Dios, Amigo” and “Very Sad Face”) are going fly right past many of us while granting inclusivity to those exchanging these letters.

The habit of shortening concepts to sets of capital letters has been invading business and education as well. This post is to ask writers to please, please write out the full phrase before resorting to the acronym. It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of a shared language, but problems arise when nonspeakers enter the picture. Problems arise even if nonspeakers don’t enter the picture. Some people have natural facility with acronyms, but others don’t easily think in abbreviations. Those abbreviations can slow the very communication they are intended to accelerate. While ADHD is pretty safe, CDB and CDS are not. ACT, AYP and AP will be immediately understood by many, but SAFE and UBD not so much so.

Eduhonesty: Being a bit petty here, but I am tired of having to refer back to earlier paragraphs to figure out what I am reading. And I pick up acronyms easily. Some professional communications I have seen recently simply have too many capital letters sitting side-by-side. I believe any parent should be able to read our communiques about their children’s educations without referring to the internet as a reference source; when we create cheat sheets like the one above, we should pause to wonder why that cheat sheet seems necessary. As they say (or don’t say since I am making this up) — WRCEA: We are confused enough already.