E-mail has brought us not only quicker and painless communication, but also a shorthand for keystrokes. Talk about impatience. For those who find that typing out certain common phrases is needlessly slow, here is a list from The Elements of E-mail Style, an Internet bible of sorts. Makes one wonder what the meaning of literacy may be in the future: someone who can string together a group of acronyms? FYA & FWIW, CUL.*
| ACRONYM | EXPRESSION |
| -------- | ---------- |
| BRB | Be right back |
| BTW | By the way |
| CUL | See you later |
| F2F | Face to face |
| FWIW | For what it's worth |
| FYA | For your amusement |
| FYI | For your information |
| GD&R | Grinning, ducking, and running |
| GMTA | Great minds think alike |
| HHOK | Ha, ha, only kidding |
| IMHO | In my humble opinion |
| IOW | In other words |
| LOL | Laughing out loud |
| OBTW | Oh, by the way |
| OIC | Oh, I see |
| ROFL | Rolling on the floor laughing |
| SO | Significant other |
| TIA | Thanks in advance |
| TTFN | Ta-ta for now |
| WB | Welcome back |
| WRT | With respect to |
| WTG | Way to go |
- Some acronyms hold potential misunderstanding or unintended humor in non-English languages. CUL, for example, in French is a curt term for one's posterior.
*The Elements of E-mail Style. David Angell, Brent Heslop. Aaddison-Wesley Publishing Company. July, 1994.
