A minor stylistic preference I’ve recently found myself using: When introducing a key initialism or acronym in a paper, put the compressed version in the text and its expansion in parentheses.
Instead of ‘under missing at random (MAR)’, use ‘under MAR (missing at random)’.
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Instead of ‘under missing at random (MAR)’, use ‘under MAR (missing at random)’.
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Comments
An Abbreviated Term ("AT") especially in legal docs, is unique to the doc (note capitalization of the AT in its long form). Using long form followed by the abbreviation in quotes clearly sets the definition, avoiding confusion with external ATs
First, it allows readers already familiar with the initialism / acronym to skip the parentheses, improving their reading flow. This sounds very minor but I want to minimise flow-interruptions for readers.
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*see what I did there? 😉
*I bet this example doesn’t work because CIJ is just so perfect
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As someone that doesn't read the introduction on papers, it pisses me off to have to go back and find in the intro where someone has put the N-SAoI (non-standard acronym or initialism).
There's usually no need for them at all, unless they're better understood than the full expression.
Same here, also pissed off by having to go back to the intro.
Acronyms had a practical value when you had to type every letter into a typewriter. Nowadays, only 2 good reasons: 1. Well known acronyms can speed up reading. 2. Limited amount of available letter-space. 😅