Acronyms: my company is ASS

House style at the publication I work for is to shorten long, multi-word company names to an acronym after first use (if possible). For example, 'Jonathan Smithson International' will be called 'Jonathan Smithson International (JSI)' on first use and after that just 'JSI'. This saves space, is easier to read and reduces the risk of typos.

Today I was subbing a story about a firm called Appropriate Scaffolding Services and was just about to shorten its name to an acronym when I realised that referring to it as 'ASS' throughout the feature possibly wouldn't be appreciated by its directors.... although it might have given readers on both sides of the Atlantic a chuckle.

2 comments:

Apus said...

ah yes... I well recall the problem we had with Thompsons Information Trucking ;)

The Ridger, FCD said...

People should really think of such things. (And perhaps someone did, you never know.) One that gets reactions around here is Guaranteed Overnight Delivery.