Learn English – Correct capitalisation of ‘jargon’ words used as acronyms

acronymscapitalization

In a technical role at work we use many three letter acronyms to describe 'things' that we work with or processes that we follow. When writing these up, I'm unclear if capitals should be used or not. There's some discussion about whether these 'things' should be considered as proper nouns or not.

For example we carry out an impact assessment. There is a specific document or artifact which is the 'Impact Assessment' document, which has a commonly understood meaning and which is often abbreviated as IA.

As such, when writing a process document describing this should I refer to the impact assessment document, or the Impact Assessment document? I think the former, as it is not a proper noun, but would appreciate guidance. I'm in the UK, if that makes any difference.

So far, two answers with different advice, with same upvotes. I'm tempted to go with capitalisation, as it does seem to help people draw a distinction between names of documents and the surrounding text, even though it feels incorrect to me.

Best Answer

If it's not a proper noun, don't capitalise (unless in a title, or the first word at the start of a sentence.)

For example, the Wikipedia impact assessment entry begins:

Impact assessment (IA) is "a process aimed at ...

Further, their acronym and initialism entry says:

The expansion is typically given at the first occurrence of the acronym within a given text, for the benefit of those readers who do not know what it stands for. The capitalization of the original term is independent of it being acronymized, being lowercase for a term such as frequently asked questions (FAQ) but uppercase for a proper name such as the United Nations (UN).

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