Verbalizing acronyms
Make sure of your audience before you start verbalizing acronyms. If I have to use an acronym, I try to give the full name of the acronym whenever I first use it in a conversation or presentation, particularly since I often use verbal shorthand for the acronym. Otherwise I will refer to it in generic terms (for example, using "communications standard" instead of RS-232).
Before I started doing this, my friends' eyes would glaze over as they tried to figure out who or what was the itripoli (IEEE) or the yousaph (USAF), tack (TAC) or sack (SAC).
Overuse of acronyms identifies you as pretentious just as fast as overuse of large words.
