Where to first demonstrate initialisms for groups within Constitution

[UnquoteWist]

Hello!

We're doing an overhaul of our constitution, and I'm wondering what is the best or most common way to connect long names of groups to their respective initialisms. In prose, it's typical for the initialism to be put in parentheses after the first or second time it is mentioned in the text, and that initialism is used for the remainder of the document. For our constitution, we could either 1) write out the whole name and put the group initialism in parenthesis together in the section it's introduced (e.g., "Art. 4 §6 International House of Pancakes (IHOP)") or 2) add a subpoint "terminology" or similar underneath each group's founding section with this information. Other ideas?

#2 would be nice because it would allow the Section titles to be more succinct and make the Table of Contents a lot cleaner, but it feels far more formal than we need? I just figured this isn't the first time anyone's thought of this, and I'm curious to hear your approaches!

[Rob Elsman]

I recommend avoiding abbreviations. It is possible to set up the auto-correct function of a word processor to replace an abbreviation with the whole term whenever it is typed. 

[Bruce Lages]

How many different named entities do you need to reference in your constitution, and what is their relationship to each other?  I wouldn't think the need to provide initialisms is a common or typical issue for most organizations in writing their governing documents. Is this some kind of umbrella organization that encompasses multiple sub-units with different names?

[UnquoteWist]

On 1/12/2024 at 11:37 AM, Bruce Lages said:

How many different named entities do you need to reference in your constitution, and what is their relationship to each other?  I wouldn't think the need to provide initialisms is a common or typical issue for most organizations in writing their governing documents. Is this some kind of umbrella organization that encompasses multiple sub-units with different names?

@Bruce Lages, this is an academic org. that either references or defines/establishes at least 30 other groups with names as long as 100 characters and 10 words. The relationships are mixed, but many of these other named entities referenced are representatives from other organizations externally established.

Thanks for your reply! Thanks for your reply as well, @Rob Elsman!

Voluntary support from amazing people like you two (and the other big contributors on this Forum) for complete strangers who are new to these things is one of the most beautiful things about the internet.

Edited January 12, 2024 at 06:01 PM by UnquoteWist
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[Josh Martin]

On 1/12/2024 at 11:05 AM, UnquoteWist said:

We're doing an overhaul of our constitution, and I'm wondering what is the best or most common way to connect long names of groups to their respective initialisms. In prose, it's typical for the initialism to be put in parentheses after the first or second time it is mentioned in the text, and that initialism is used for the remainder of the document. For our constitution, we could either 1) write out the whole name and put the group initialism in parenthesis together in the section it's introduced (e.g., "Art. 4 §6 International House of Pancakes (IHOP)") or 2) add a subpoint "terminology" or similar underneath each group's founding section with this information. Other ideas?

I first concur with Mr. Elsman that avoiding initials altogether and using full names is ideal, to the extent possible.

To the extent use of initials is needed, my experience is generally that one of the following strategies is used:

• Spell out the group's full name the first time it appears, followed by the initials in parentheses.
• Create a "Definitions and Abbreviations" section near the start of the document describing the various initials used throughout the document.

[Atul Kapur]

The benefit of having a "Definitions and Abbreviations" section is that readers can easily find the full name instead of having to search for where the abbreviation/initialism is first used.

I am more concerned with making the document easy for a reader to find the information they are looking for than whether it is too formal or other stylistic matters. That being said, if you have 30 such organizations, you need that level of formality.