Scientific writing 3.0: A reader and writer's guide - Jean-Luc Lebrun, Justin Lebrun 2021

The forgotten or undefined acronym
Require less from memory
The reading toolkit

Before we jump in, we would like to introduce you to Vladimir - a Russian scientist who will occupy many little story bubbles that you will find across this book. Observing his behaviour is an often humorous way to pinpoint the pains that we all encounter as scientific readers.

Reading accident

Vladimir is reading a paper in the printed proceedings of the conference he attends each year. As it turns out, he is reading your paper! Suddenly, he stops on page three, places his index finger underneath a word, and rapidly scans the text he has just read, searching for something. What he is looking for is not on the page. With his free left hand, he flips back one page, and then another… He stops again. His face lights up. Satisfied, he returns to the page he was reading before the distracting reading U-turn, withdraws the finger still pointing to the problematic sentence, and resumes reading. What happened? A reading accident: the forgotten acronym. Who is responsible?

Guess who!

The forgotten or undefined acronym

Acronyms allow writing to be concise, but conciseness is unhelpful if it decreases clarity. An acronym is always clear within the paragraph in which it is defined. If it is used regularly in the paragraphs that follow, the reader is able to keep its meaning in mind, but if it appears irregularly or if reading is frequently interrupted, the acronym — away from the warm nest of the reader’s short-term memory — loses its meaning.

How could Vladimir have lost the meaning of the acronym? He had read its definition at the beginning of the paper, but had forgotten it by the time he got to page three. Apart from simply forgetting, Vladimir could have missed the definition all together. Picture this.

You drew a brilliant figure that attracts the attention of Vladimir as he first browses through your paper. He is drawn to the caption of that figure and trips over an obscure acronym. Problem is, Vladimir has not yet read the introduction of the paper where the acronym is defined. Therefore, refrain from placing acronyms in captions and subheadings.

Sometimes, the acronym is not defined at all because the writer assumes that the reader is an expert in the field, and already familiar with the acronym. This omission is sure to upset the readers who are not experts because it forces them to search for the definition of the acronym outside of the paper.

Avoiding problems with acronyms is easy:

If an acronym is used two or three times only in the entire paper, it is better not to use one at all (unless it is as well-known as IBM, or the paper happens to be extremely short, like a letter or an extended abstract).

If an acronym is used more than two or three times, expand its letters the first time it appears on a page or under a new heading so that the reader never has to go far to find its definition.

Avoid acronyms in visuals or redefine them when in a title, legend or caption because readers often look at the visuals of a paper before reading it.

Avoid acronyms in headings and subheadings because readers often read the structure of a paper before reading the rest.

Be conservative. Define all acronyms, except those commonly understood by the readers of the journal where your paper is published.

Never leave an acronym undefined unless it is as familiar as U.S.A. And remember that your international reader may not be familiar with local, national, or foreign acronyms (French SIDA is English AIDS).

If the acronym is well-known, introduce it before its definition. If it is not well-known, let its definition precede the abbreviated form.

The Singapore taxi driver

The other day, while Vladimir was in Singapore, He hailed a taxi to go to a research institute located on the campus of Nanyang Technological University (N.T.U). The taxi stopped. Vlad got in and said “Nanyang Technological University, please”. The taxi driver, an old man who had clearly been living many years in Singapore, replied: “I do not know where that is”. The answer surprised Vlad. The university is old and well established; surely the taxi driver had taken passengers there before. When Vladimir explained that it was at the end of the expressway towards Jurong, the old man’s face suddenly brightened and he said with a large smile, “Ah! N.T.U! Why didn’t you say so before!” That day, Vladimir learned that an acronym is sometimes better known than its definition.

The popular universal learning algorithm SVM (Support Vector Machine) had a profound impact on the world of classification.

The new universal learning algorithm — Support Vector Machine (SVM) — is likely to have a profound impact on the world of classification.