Should acronyms be spelled out at once?

[Miss Mae]

In a Philippine newspaper is a news story about an international non-profit organization's initiative to open a 'model cacao nursery.' ([http://mb.com.ph/articles/343396/davao-hosts-model-cacao-nursery]Davao hosts model cacao nursery[/http://mb.com.ph/articles/343396/davao-hosts-model-cacao-nursery])

In that news story is this lead: The Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance or ACDI/VOCA, an international non-profit organization that implements the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded CoCoPal (Coconut, Cacao, and Palay) Integrated Farming Systems Project in Mindanao opened earlier the CoCoPal model cacao nursery situated at Kilometer 12, Bernabe Subdivision, Catalunan Pequeño, this city.

It could be the spelling out of the acronym ACDI/VOCA or the 24-word appositive that follows it that, as you put it, 'makes for insufferable reading' of the lead paragraph. Aside from your reconstruction, will it also do if the acronym is mentioned a paragraph later and the appositive trimmed?

An international non-profit organization opened a model cacao nursery recently.

“Presently, we are providing support to qualified nursery operators and partners in our project areas. In Davao City, we supported the establishment of a model nursery with 100,000 production capacity to showcase best practices in cacao nursery production,” said Nicholas Richards of the ACDI/VOCA, which stands for Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance.

The ACDI/VOCA implements the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded CoCoPal (Coconut, Cacao, and Palay) Integrated Farming Systems Project in Mindanao. The place where cacaos would be grown for sale* will be at Kilometer 12, Bernabe Subdivision, Catalunan Pequeño.

*Not everybody knows that a nursery could also be 'a place where plants are grown for sale, transplanting, or experimentation ([http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nursery]The Free Dictionary[/http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nursery),' right?

[Joe Carillo]

Yes, it’s always advisable to mention the acronym of an organization with a longwinded name later in the news story; that way, the name need not be repeated in every subsequent mention of it, which, of course, could be such a terrible aggravation to the reader. But whether the organization uses an acronym or not, the point I wanted to emphasize is that the reporter mustn’t overtax the powers of comprehension of the readers by starting off a lead sentence with a kilometric, mind-boggling proper name like “The Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance” and, even before delivering the operative verb, immediately follow that proper name with another horrendously long qualifier like “an international non-profit organization that implements the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded CoCoPal (Coconut, Cacao, and Palay) Integrated Farming Systems Project.” That’s turning a routine news story into a Babel of nouns, nouns, and more nouns followed by even more nouns, which I must say is more than the average brain can take.

Regarding your proposed rewrite of that story, I think it starts on the wrong foot by giving an overly generic lead sentence that offers no particulars whatsoever in terms of the who, what, where, and when of the subject being reported about: “An international non-profit organization opened a model cacao nursery recently.” This is a big no-no in news journalism; the least a reporter should do to begin with is to identify by name the subject of the news story so as to put everything that follows in the context of that subject.

As it is, in the absence of a specific subject in your lead sentence, the quoted statement that immediately follows it rings hollow and meaningless. It’s very much like a blind speaker talking to a nonexistent audience in an utterly dark convention hall.

[Miss Mae]

Uh, couldn't that be considered a trick to entice the readers to continue doing so?

[Joe Carillo]

To be able to get away with a news lead using a generic statement, you must at least dangle morsels of particularity in it, something controversial the way entertainment and gossip writers do it, as in "Did you know that Hunk A is now Hunk B's lover after breaking off with Starlet C?" Unfortunately, a news release that "An international non-profit organization opened a model cacao nursery recently" hardly meets the grade for this kind of titillating trick reporting. It's therefore best in such mundane situations to stick to the straight news basics.

[Miss Mae]

Okay. I'll remember that.