Acronyms

The Daily Illini only allows a few acronyms to be published.

Among the few are CITES (Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services), ARC (Activities and Resource Center) and CRCE (Campus Recreation Center-East). The rest need to be spelled out, or at least be given a shorter name on subsequent references.

I'm not sure how I feel on this. On one end, it makes for a lot of words that could be cut down. On the other end, it is to prevent confusion for the readers. A new acronym may not be the easiest thing to remember.

Ultimately, though, I have enough faith in readers to think they can figure out an acronym if it is spelled out on a first reference in an article, they will be able to figure it out. An article is not like a novel, they will be able to remember for the remainder of the read.

I would also agree that it does take up a lot more space in an article, essentially taking up space that could be used in other ways. If it needs to be spelled out, that can add a lot of words to an article, and really make it a pain to read.

I have heard from readers before about why we don't use acronyms. I know it is The Daily Illini's policy, but it can be a pain if a student organization or government branch is talked about. Maybe there is a compromise, maybe we should just start allowing more of them than the select few we do now.