Every industry and corporation eventually gets infected with its own buzz words and jargon. There’s nothing wrong with using initials, acronyms, and jargon, per se. In fact, among a community of like-minded people, language is and should be robust. Change is inevitable in language, and usually a good thing.

One trend I’ve noticed is the use of initials that don’t replace syllables or the time it takes to say a phrase. For example, when I am in Southeast Asia, business people refer to “PPTs” and “PPT slides.” I scratched my head the first time I heard this, but then I realized they were referring to PowerPoints and PowerPoint slides. The only problem is that saying “PPTs” takes three syllables. But saying “PowerPoint” also takes only three syllables.

So how much time was saved? 0 seconds. Actually, time was lost—the time in the audience members’ heads as they convert the initials back into words.

It’s OK to use initials among peers who know what you’re talking about, but make sure your initials actually save you and your audience time. As a general rule, it makes no sense to use initials for one syllable words—each takes the same time to say.

Are you guilty of needlessly cluttering your speech with initials and acronyms that do no one any good? The only true test is to audio record yourself for a day and then listen for any unwarranted initials that pop out.

There is no hard and fast rule about when to use or avoid initials. Personally, I find that other than IRS, CIA, and SCUBA, you are better off saying out the entire word phrase rather than shortening.

Read more from TJ Walker at http://www.tjsinsights.com

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