10. Nomenclature and Acronyms

Because not everyone understands specific jargon!

Every field or industry has its own jargon, with a specific nomenclature and acronyms that everyone within that field will be familiar with; your reader however may not. It is therefore essential you clearly define the nomenclature and acronyms used, respectively defined has:

• Nomenclature: system of name or terms to which a letter or symbol.
• Acronyms: a name generally formed of the initials of a phrases.

For the nomenclature, an example would be the letter g, used to define the acceleration due to gravity.

On the other hand, FEA is an acronym for Finite Element Analysis.

As part of the front matter, and after the table of contents and table of figures/tables/equations, a nomenclature as well as a list of acronyms should be presented, again to help the reader better understand your work.

When dealing with nomenclature or acronyms, the convention is to spell them out fully the first time they appear, with the acronym in brackets; this is an introduction to the acronym to guide your reader. After that, you can simply use the acronym. See the example below:

Calculation were undertaken using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Indeed, FEA has proven a relevant and accurate way to model our current structural issues.

Please be aware of the RAS syndrome, namely the Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome, which is a perfect example of the RAS syndrome! It is defined as using both the acronym as well as some of the words contained in the acronym. In addition to the example above, other common ones include:

• The FEA analysis (Finite Element Analysis analysis)
• The RLH hospital (Royal London Hospital hospital)
• PIN number (Personal Identification Number number)

Finally, do not abuse acronyms! Use them when relevant, and ensure they are listed, as the terms of the nomenclature, in the front matter, and properly introduce in the report, thus making your work easily understandable and accessible to a wider pool of readers.

Have you got any good examples of the RAS syndrome? Let us know in the comments!