Sometimes it’s the littlest things
that become our epiphanies. The one I got today is—at least in part—the
epiphany that not all epiphanies are grand or even all that useful. Or even
necessarily something we weren’t aware of before So maybe I didn’t experience
epiphany at all; maybe it was more like hearing Sinatra sing, “As the gentlemen
said, ain’t that a kick in the head.”
Whatever it was, it came in the form of a little
quiz in Time magazine based on the
Oxford book of slang and it came because maybe—just maybe—my idea of learning computer
stuff on a need-to-know basis has left me with some really huge knowledge gaps. Or maybe it was because I hate initialism (and, by extension acronyms) so bad that I have a mental block.
Readers were supposed to “unpack
these abbreviations:”
- ICMI
- SMH
- WDYT
- YOLO
In spite of the verb “unpack”
which seems slightly inaccurate, I correctly realized that Time wanted me to recognize what the initials stand for. They gave no hints. Like, “Beware: If
you don’t text, you may find this extra difficult.” Or “Watch it! If you hate
initialism and acronyms , you’ll be annoyed by this.” It just presented me with these four tests
that looked like the old scrambled word game I knew as a child.
I didn’t know any of them. Score,
a big fat zero. In case you want to see if you can best me (hint, you are
certain to tie or do better!), here are the answers.
1. ICMI: In case you missed it . . .
2. SMH: Shaking my head . . .
3. WDYT: What do you think . . .
4. YOLO: You only live once . . .
The only positive thing I can say
about this lowest test score of all time is that my as-needed-philosophy may
need some exposure to younger folk. I mean, I was beginning to find LOL
clichéd.
Happy writing, editing and
promoting,
Carolyn
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults. and speaks on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (How To Do It Frugally series of book for writers)
. Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/writers_books.htm , where writers will find lists and other helps including Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips 
on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her Sharing with Writers blog. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo . Please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-:
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