Never Spell Out These 10 Words

(Give yourself a break)

Jay Krasnow
ILLUMINATION

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Photo of the letters “CIA” from the cover of a book.
Photo taken by author

Even though your English teacher told you to spell out acronyms when you write, there are some case when you don’t do that.

As a refresher, an acronym is short form from the initial letters of other words, that are pronounced as a word, such as RADAR — that’s short for Radio Detection and Ranging.

Initialism — a close relative of the acronym — is an abbreviation consisting of the initial successive letters of several words that are pronounced separately. An example of initialism is CPU for the central processing unit.

When you’re writing, if any of these 10 below acronyms or initialisms come up, never spell them out.

1) AIDS — Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

2) CIA — Central Intelligence Agency

3) DNA — deoxyribonucleic acid

4) FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions

5) FBI — Federal Bureau of Investigations

6) LASER — Light Amplification by the Stimulation of Radiation

7) NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Institute

8) NATO — North Atlantic Treaty Organization

9) NFL — National Football League

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Jay Krasnow
ILLUMINATION

Former CIA officer | Most-definite Southpaw — Mind Cafe | Better Marketing | Writers Cooperative | Publishous — Tweet: @JayKrasnow