5 Lesser-Known Email Acronyms You Need To Know
Are acronyms making you acrimonious :)? Not knowing what these acronyms stand for (especially if they are not industry standard) can be embarrassing even more so if you have received the email from senior leadership. You cannot walk up to your senior leader and ask what it means. Your leadership have a lot more things to do than to explain what they wrote you in an email. Acronyms can be annoying if you don’t know them. It all comes down to whether you know most of the frequently used ones. In this blogpost we will cover the 5 lesser-known email acronyms that you need to know. These are generally used by native English speakers, senior leadership in particular.
Though every organisation has some org specific acronyms, there are some lesser-known email common acronyms that you need to know. Before we jump into what those acronyms are, let’s see why you need to know.
Brevity is your friend
As Marcus Tullius Cicero, the ancient Roman statesman said ‘Brevity is a great charm of eloquence’. If you can say the same thing using 3 letters, why waste a sentence to communicate the same thing? An email is meant to be short. Nothing irritates a busy person more than a lengthy email. There are high chances that a lengthy email is marked to be read later. So, it becomes very important to use those acronyms. There is a disclaimer to every claim – ‘Use your common sense’. Do not overdo it. For example, read the email below:
Let me re-write it for you:
Jokes apart, let us look at some of the acronyms which when used will enhance readability by reducing the noise.
5 Lesser-known Email Acronyms
1. RSVP-
RSVP comes from the French phrase “répondez s’il vous plaît.” It is usually used in an invite but can be used in emails as well. It means ‘Please respond’.
2. TL;DR – Too Long; Didn’t Read
Usage: They have asked us to RSVP by Friday
It is used when you send a very long mail. As a courtesy you can write TL;DR and write a short summary of the email before you begin a long email.
3. VSRE – Very Short Reply Expected.
You can just mention it in the top of the email that a short response is expected.
4. FYG – For Your Guidance
You would have come across FYI (For your information), FYR (For Your Reference) and FYA (For Your Action). FYG stands for For Your Guidance. It is usually used in subject line commonly in business emails where the sender sends important information to the recipient to help them with their work.
5. COP – Close of play
It is synonymous to EOD (End of day). Some people use it to avoid confusion (in a global set up) on whether it is end of your day or my day. Close of play means before you finish your work for the day.
This is definitely not a complete a list. Purpose of the blog was to introduce you to some of the lesser-known acronyms. Comment below your feedback and suggest topics of your interest in business English.
You can read blogs on developing your business English here.
