Acronyms

A student may sometimes ask librarians:

What does this acronym mean?

or

How do I find an acronym for words I am using in my academic research or thesis?

As we know, acronyms are words or names formed as an abbreviation from the first parts of a phrase or a word, often letters or syllables. Writers of Thai English greatly enjoy acronyms. Using them makes them feel stylish and informed. To include an acronym in a sentence can display a certain inside knowledge of a subject, and students always feel better when they can feel like they have inside knowledge. For ajarns, who are always short of time to cover all the necessary material in a course, using acronyms can save time. They are faster to write and faster to say. So there are many points in favor or acronyms. One strong point against acronyms is that not everyone knows what they mean. Fellow students in a class and an ajarn will know what an abbreviation means, but for anyone planning to write academic research or a thesis that will be published and seen by someone outside the class, acronyms can be confusing. For this reason, it is necessary to always define what any acronym means before giving the abbreviated version:

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Students may ask us:

Is there a list of acronyms I can look at?

We may reply that a quick Google search for the word acronym will turn up several websites that list acronyms. These are informative, but only to a point. For example, if the student is doing data analysis and wants to be reminded what the initials RMR stand for, one website of acronyms gives many choices, including:

Acronym        Definition

• RMR Resting Metabolic Rate
• RMR Reliability Must-Run (electric generation plant’s status to maintain grid voltage/reliability)
• RMR Recurring Monthly Revenue (finance)
• RMR Registered Merit Reporter
• RMR Rock Mass Rating (classification system)
• RMR Root Mean Residual (statistical analysis)
• RMR Radio Market Report
• RMR Remote Map Reader
• RMR Regional Maintenance Representative
• RMR Rapid Memory Reload
• RMR Retransmitted Message Ratio (Hekimian)

There are many others as well. If we are interested in statistical analysis, then we can be fairly sure that the full meaning of RMR that we want is Root Mean Residual. If the student is still in doubt, the best advice is always:

Ask your ajarn, who will know for sure.

Apart from always citing a term in full before using an acronym, especially in the abstract to any thesis or academic research paper, it is also important to consider how many acronyms to use. A text that is full with a new acronym on every line can be confusing to read. Remember that one of the main reasons that research and theses are published is that they may interest readers who are not already experts in a subject. We are trying to explain a field of study to people who may not know as much as specialists do. So it is always good to explain more than we would to our classmates or ajarns, since we can assume they are fully acquainted with the topic.

If the students asks:

What is the difference between an acronym and an abbreviation?

We may explain that abbreviations may be any form of shortening a word, such as we see online where the city of Bangkok is referred to as BKK. Acronyms are a special form of word shortening, using the first letter or first few letters of a word in a phrase. So, the Tourism Authority of Thailand acronym is TAT. When mentioning the Tourism Authority of Thailand, it is a good idea to include the acronym right after it in parentheses:

Tourism Authority of Thailand acronym (TAT)

After we have mentioned the acronym once, then we should use only the acronym, since the point of using acronyms is to save space and avoid repeating words in academic research or theses. In some student writing in Thai English, an acronym is given, but then it is not used, since the full term is repeated again and again until the end of the paper. Acronyms are sometimes confusing to the English language learner, because there are no clear rules about the way they are made or pronounced. Sometimes an acronym is as much of a surprise to native English speaker as to a writer of Thai English. So acronyms can be useful, if they are explained correctly.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)