RE: A/An
The style guide where I work specifies that an acronym must bepronounceable, such as RADAR or SCUBA. Anything that can't be pronounced as a word is just an abbreviation. I'd never heard this view before, and it seems a little odd to me.<<
An acronym is the pronounceable combination of the first letters of a series of words; an initialism is the unpronounceable combination of the first letters of a series of words, and then there are abbreviations. SQL, VBA, and ASP are examples of initialisms; SNAFU, NASA, and WYSIWYG are acronyms; Inc., corp., and Ltd. are abbreviations.
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