[thesite] Eliminating jargon in articles
Madhu Menon
webguru at vsnl.net
Fri Nov 9 13:58:56 CST 2001
At 12:13 PM 11/9/2001, you wrote:
>Confusing. If I have to stop with each group of letters that's not a word
>and decide if it's an acronym or an abbreviation, it adds complexity without
>(as far as I know) adding value. But, does using both abbreviation and
>acronym add value that I'm missing?
Well... one elegant solution for this is to use the <acronym> tag only for
the first instance of the acronym or abbreviation. So, you're talking about
J2EE in article, use it only the first time it's mentioned.
As for when to add it, I would have to say, "use common sense". Like Adrian
said, HTML, URL, HTTP etc. that come in the "things you better know before
you become a web developer" category don't require explaining. Something
like "802.11" or "NAT" *does*.
It also depends on your audience. If you're writing for a larger audience,
it's to your credit if they understand you. If your audience is smaller and
speak the jargon of the trade, you can do without the tags.
Madhu
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Madhu Menon
User Experience Consultant
e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net
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