Research Advice

We hear, see, and use acronyms and abbreviations every day without much thought to someone else understanding what we mean.

On campus a student may say they are going to their ACE class to work on their CAD plans and most people would understand that they are an Architecture and Civil Engineering student going to work on their Computer Assisted Drafting plans.

Off campus...people may think they are in an Arts, Culture and Education class going to work on plans for a Community Arts Development project.

Do you see the problem?

Knowing this can happen should make you stop and ask what ACE or CAD are they talking about?

Reading an article full of acronyms can be a challenge so below are some great resources for decoding the alphabet soup you may find yourself in the middle of.

Google Option:

Sometimes Google can help too.  Simply type in the acronym you are looking for, the word acronym, and if known the subject area involved.

Example 1: cad acronym architecture 

Result 1: Computer-Aided Drafting

Example 2: cad acronym medicine

Result 2: Coronary Artery Disease

Be careful with this method as it can backfire if the same acronym was used multiple time in the same field.  This happens a lot in computer and technology fields.

DSL = Digital Subscriber Line & Direct Satellite Link,  both deal with the internet, computers, and technology but they have very different meanings and uses.

Words that are specific to certain fields of work are everywhere.  Phrases like Legalese (legal terms) and Techie speak (technology terms) have been used to describe them as if they were their own language...which in a way they are.  

Each field of knowledge has its own jargon words that people in the field use every day,  but those outside (or new to) the field may not understand.

Thankfully there are plenty of "Translation Guides" out there for all of them.  Below are a few of the better sources you can use to help you decipher / decode / and hopefully understand the jargon you may come across.

Tips: 

Terms in Textbooks: Most authors of textbooks know that you are new to a topic and learning the terms as you go.  The good authors will make it easy for you to find the term and its meaning.  Key terms are usually in bold followed by a brief definition.  They may also appear italicized with their definitions or in captions of pictures that explain what they mean.  

Glossary: The glossary of a book is also where terms found in the book will be explained.  Glossaries are a tiny dictionary for words and are usually found in the back of the book.  

Dictionaries: even include many jargon terms too.  Just be sure you are using a new dictionary since jargon changes often.

Google: of course you can always enter the term you are looking for into Google too.  Just type the word, definition, and the name of the field it is related to.

Example: circulation definition library

Answer: the lending and returning of library materials.

The name of the field is important since the same jargon term can exist in many fields and mean different things in each.

Example 2: circulation definition medical

Answer: the movement of fluid through the body.

Now we get to the really confusing words.  Slang, Leetspeak, and other new words and languages.

Slang:

If you thought abbreviations and jargon were bad, Slang words take it to another whole level of confusion.  Slag words are words that usually start existence as being highly localized in origin and often are used in ways only locals understand.  Slang like all language migrates, moves, is adopted and changed...but at a much faster rate.

Maine Example:  That lobsta' is wicked good.   

Confusion caused: What is a Lobsta, and how can it be both wicked and good?   

Translation: That lobster is really good.
Now wicked good is a phrase from Maine that has traveled far and wide...but there are still those that would be confused by it.

On occasion slang words appear in research written by authors to whom their slang is such a part of how they talk they forgot that other people may not understand what they are saying.  If you are doing research about slang things get even more interesting.

Here are some useful tools that may help translate for you.

Tips:

Google has this one.

Slang changes so quickly that very few recording mediums can keep up.
Simply enter the slang word, slang, and possibly the topic you heard it in reference to.

Example: lit slang party

Answer: fun or exiting party

Caution: slang terms often have multiple meanings, some of which are entirely "not safe for work" or in other words obscene.  1. Don't be offended or ashamed as you are trying to learn what something means.  2. Do keep this in mind however if you are in a public environment where others may be offended by what is on your screen. 3. If asked simply (and calmly) explain that you were just looking up what the term means.

Leetspeak:

Leetspeak is a modification of language developed during the 1980's computer hacker culture.  Amazingly it is still hanging on in some areas of technology culture - most notably in hacking and cybersecurity.  Leetspeak is the process of swapping letters with numbers to write words...as in hacker = hax0r.  In essence Leetspeak has become its own language.  How long it will survive remains to be seen.

Total Fiction:

As if acronyms, jargon, and slang weren't bad enough...some folks go out and make up whole new languages for fun and (on occasion) profit.

Movies, books, tv shows, new words come from many imaginary places sometimes they evolve into entire languages...and on the rarest of occasions they appear in research articles (usually by linguists).  Believe it or not there are online translation guides and dictionaries for completely make believe languages...which I guess turns them into real languages?  I'll let you be the judge.

Either way they are a fun distraction to find at the bottom of this long page of information.