Why use words when an ACRONYM will do? …
October 16, 2013
By
Canadian Consulting Engineer
Quote: "Engineers like acronyms. It is often the easiest way of saying what otherwise takes many words, syllables and one or two breaths to speak: APEGM or ah-peg-um, or Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba.......
Quote: “Engineers like acronyms. It is often the easiest way of saying what otherwise takes many words, syllables and one or two breaths to speak: APEGM or ah-peg-um, or Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba…. Over time, members have embraced the acronym APEGM and use it as our name to avoid saying a big mouthful of words. This seems like an easy solution, but it doesn’t serve us very well outside the membership.
“The public does not recognize the acronym, so I avoid using it during introductions. When someone asks “Who are you with?” and I use the full name of the association, they stop listening after the first few words: “the association of professional blah, blah, blah.” Sometimes they will interject “What is a geoscientist?!” It makes it difficult when the public does not stay attentive long enough during an introduction to fully learn the organization’s name. On occasion, I have resorted to saying “I am with the engineers.”
— Grant Koropatnick, P.Eng., Executive Director and Registrar of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba, in the Keystone Professional, Fall 2013, page. 8-9.
Koropatnick went on to ask whether the association should simplify its name to Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba, following the lead of “Engineers Nova Scotia,”
“Engineers Geoscientists New Brunswick” and “Engineers Canada.”
To read the article in the Keystone Professional, click here.
