Our brains are better at remembering things when we use cool little tricks, called mnemonics, that make it easier for us to absorb the information. Mnemonics condense a lot of information into a short, easy-to-remember word or phrase. A lot of people who are learning new skills create their own mnemonics, or use more well-known ones that have been circling around for any number of years. In this article, we’re going to be talking about the most well-known type of mnemonic–acronyms.
Acronyms help just about all of us. They’re everywhere, they’re easy to create and use, and some are so pervasive in our language that we don’t even know they’re acronyms! The words laser, taser, radar, care package, spam, and base jumping all started as acronyms, but were used so often that they just get used at regular old words now. In this article, though, I’m going to be discussing the exact opposite. I have a list of rather unknown acronyms that have really helped me in my life. I want to share them with you so that maybe they can help you just as they’ve helped me, and you can share them with your friends so that they can benefit from them all the same.
FORD and ROPE
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and been unsure of what to say to them? Do you struggle to talk about things that aren’t immediately on your mind? Are you the type of person to draw a blank when asked about yourself? These two acronyms should help you out a lot.
To think of things you should talk about, use the acronym FORD
Family
Occupation
Recreation
Dreams
This works wonders, especially when you don’t know someone very well, but you still want to be friendly to them. Allow me to provide some examples: (Keep in mind, these are just subjects, not direct questions; just blurting them out unceremoniously could have the opposite effect)
- Family: So do you have any siblings? Are you the oldest child?
- Occupation: What do you do for work? Do you go to college?
- Recreation: Have any cool hobbies? What kind of things do you do for fun
- Dreams: If money wasn’t an issue, what career path would you take? Is there anyone who really inspires you?
Now, on the other hand, there might be some of you who actually end up oversharing. Does it seem like people gravitate away from having conversations with you? Do you overthink conversations you’ve had with people you like? You’re not left out either; there’s an acronym for you too.
To think of things you shouldn’t talk about, use the acronym ROPE
Religion
Oddities
Politics
Economics
These are the most common things that people discuss that make others wary of having conversations with them. Examples are as such:
- Religion: Do you believe in God? Do you think that believing in a divine being is irrational or outdated?
- Oddities: Did you know peanut butter usually contains insect shells in it? If you had to cut off either of your hands, which one would you cut off?
- Politics: What do you think about Joe Biden’s attempt to pack the court? Do you think gerrymandering laws mainly benefit the Democratic party?
- Economics: Oil prices went up by 0.36% last week! Do you think Universal Basic Income can work on a large enough scale for Americans?
Some of you might recognize this acronym in a different form, using a similar but more profane word instead of “ROPE”. I’ve decided to change it to this current form, as I think it works a lot better and can be used in more contexts.
RAFT
A lot of people have good writing ideas, but aren’t sure how to get them out on paper. They have these ideas in their heads and it makes sense to them, but they’re not sure what the best way of expressing them are. It can be hard even for the most experienced writers sometimes. The acronym RAFT should be able to help with this. Though it’s commonly taught in elementary and middle school, it works well to get me out of writer’s block, and I hope it works well for you too.
To determine the best way to write an idea, use the acronym RAFTS
Role – Who is doing the writing? Who is the narrator?
Audience – Who is the narrator writing to? Who is supposed to be reading it?
Format – What type of writing will you create?
Topic – What is your writing about?
I highly recommend using this technique for all types of writing. To illustrate its effectiveness, allow me to provide three different examples with varying media sources.
The Maze Runner, by James Dashner
- Role: 1st person, a fictional 16-year-old boy named Thomas
- Audience: Teens/young adults
- Format: Book
- Topic: Thomas losing his memory and waking up in a mysterious maze for an unknown reason.
MacBeth, by William Shakespeare
- Role: 3rd person narrator
- Audience: King James I of England
- Format: Play
- Topic: A Scottish king is murdered by a nobleman and his wife in an attempt to gain the throne
Banning large sodas is legal and smart, by Lawrence O. Gostin
- Role: A CNN journalist
- Audience: Americans, adults
- Format: News article
- Topic: Banning large-sized sodas at fast food establishments will help with public health in the United States.
Some versions of this acronym use RAFTS instead, where the S stands for “Strong Verb”. It basically means “What is the purpose of your writing? Are you trying to entertain people? To present an argument? To create a historical record?” I’ve not included this, as it’s less common and offsets the completeness of the acronym, in my opinion.
SMART
This one is a personal favorite of many, so you may have heard of it before. But I don’t see enough people implementing it in their lives, so I’m including it here nonetheless.
Many, many people–young or old, man or woman, liberal or conservative–are very poor at setting goals for themselves. I see a lot of people who have a whole long list of things they want to do, projects they want to start, places they want to go–but they draw a blank when questioned about how they’re going to achieve them.
People subconsciously believe that all they need to do is figure out things they want to do in life, then wait around until life brings them a way to accomplish it. The exact opposite is true. If you want to achieve big things in life, you should do at least a little bit of planning for it. SMART helps you do this.
To properly set goals for yourself, use the acronym SMART
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-constrained
You can use these 5 words to modify your goals in order to make them better for yourself. And it works really well, regardless of what type of goal you’re trying to set. I’ll give you an example of a goal created using SMART, and which parts pertain to each word.
“I will run on my treadmill for 3 hours every week for at least one month. I work full-time in an office job, so I want to work out to keep my bones and muscles healthy.”
- Specific: Instead of just saying “I will exercise”, they say “I will run on my treadmill”
- Measurable: “for 3 hours every week”
- Attainable: This person “works full-time at an office job”, so it wouldn’t be realistic for them to try to start an intense every-day workout regimen
- Relevant: Since this person works at an office job, they’re always sitting down, and it’s good to maintain a healthy workout to prevent any muscle weakness
- Time-constrained: Must be done “for at least one month”
HOMES
This one probably won’t be used on a regular basis, but if you like trivia games or just want to impress your cool geography friends, this one will come in handy, especially if you don’t live in the northern U.S.
The great lakes are a series of five lakes that are among the biggest in the world, making them very culturally significant for the U.S states–and one Canadian province–that border them. Often studied and visited by tourists, they’ve become essential for anyone studying geography in North America. They’re all part of one interconnected system, so they tend to be thought of as one big collective. But what are they called individually?
To remember what the five great lakes are called, use the acronym HOMES
Huron
Ontario
Michigan
Eerie
Superior
There are other helpful mnemonics and acronyms that help you remember them in different orders, but this one is the one that has stuck with me the best over the years. Use it to take home the win during your next trivia night, or just to impress your particularly studious group of friends.
DABDA
This one might be my favorite out of the whole list, because it’s the only one that I actually came up with myself!* However, the idea itself has existed long before I knew it existed.
The Kübler-Ross model, more commonly known as the five stages of grief, is a system used to explain the ways people deal with death. Originally used to describe the way people suffering from terminal illnesses process the news of their deaths, it’s also been extended to also describe the way people react to the death of a loved one. It’s appeared often in pop culture, and has even been discussed in therapy and counseling sessions; personally, the latter is how I figured out about it. I share this with you in the hopes that you can better understand your own grief, or the grief of someone that you care about.
To better understand the way we humans deal with grief, use the acronym DABDA
Denial
Anger
Bartering
Depression
Acceptance
This is a very complex and delicate subject for many, but this may help you or someone you love process and become more self-aware. This article on Grief.com explains it way better than I could, and it has a lot of other helpful resources that all deal with the topic of grief. Also, keep in mind that not everyone goes through each of these steps in the same order, and some may cycle through them or even skip some steps entirely. There is no one proper way to grieve, and you shouldn’t set expectations for the grief of anyone.
If you please, leave a comment with any other acronyms that I may have missed; if I get enough, I’ll make a follow-up article exclusively with reader submissions! I love sharing helpful knowledge and content with you all, and I’m sure you have things you can teach me as well. I hope that you learned something that you can carry with you by reading this
Sources:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-mnemonics/
https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/13/opinion/gostin-soda-ban/
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/smart-goals.htm
https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/essential-guide-writing-smart-goals
https://www.geographyrealm.com/geography-mnemonics-help-learn-great-lakes/
https://www.britannica.com/place/Great-Lakes
https://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507885/
https://www.verywellhealth.com/dabda-the-five-stages-of-coping-with-death-1132148
https://www.healthline.com/health/stages-of-grief#7-stages
*Regrettably, I’ve discovered while doing research for this article that others have also come up with this acronym before I have. To still maintain my sense of originality, I also use the mnemonic “Do Anything Before Doing All”, but I’ll probably include this in it’s own separate article where it can be more relevant.
