Let's Put The "Frequently" Back Into FAQ
December 27th, 2007
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen a list of FAQs(Frequently Asked Questions) in years that seemed to have any likelihood of containing actual questions which were really asked with any frequency by the users or visitors of the site or service. It’s basically an open secret that these lists represent the answers that the site owners want to give us; the answers they know, or the things that they believe we want to know, or simply the things that they want us to know.
Those lists need a new name. Something like “Stuff We Want You To Know.” Or, “Things We Paid Our Intern To Write.”
A FAQ list should be exactly that—Questions that are Asked Frequently. Only that, nothing more than that.
- If no one is asking you questions about your site or service, there is no need for a FAQ page.
- If people occasionally ask questions, but they do not ask the same questions, there is no need for a FAQ page.
I want to add more bullet points, but I can’t. That’s it. Someone needs to be asking you questions, and they need to be asking the same questions… frequently... in order for you to need a FAQ page. If you don’t have questions being asked frequently… you don’t need FAQs.
(Aside: when writing the indefinite article in front of an acronym which begins with a vowel sound when spelled out, ie eff-ay-que but with a consonant when read in full, ie Frequently Asked Questions, do we say an FAQ or a FAQ? Is there a grammar for using the indefinite article in front of ambiguously pronounced acronyms? Enquiring minds want to know.)
3 Responses to “Let's Put The "Frequently" Back Into FAQ”
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December 27th, 2007 at 09:43 AM
Grammar for indefinite articles (whether it's a word or an acronym) is based on pronunciation, thus, if it's a vowel sound, you need an an. Or, instead of spelling out the acronym, try to pronounce it like a word; FAQs = fax. Then you would need an a. Would that be too confusing? For example, we don't say M-N-D-O-T, we say mindot. Why? I don't think grammar specifies. Here's a kicker, though - why do we say "Lake Calhoun" for one lake, but "Rice Lake" for another... Who tells us which position the word lake should be in!? I say we should all speak Chinese.
December 27th, 2007 at 11:08 AM
Yeah... I usually follow pronunciation. I used "a" above, but in actuality, I usually want to pronounce it "Eff-Ay-Queues", so I always feel like writing "an FAQ". But on paper, that _looks_ wrong, somehow. Maybe. I don't know?
December 31st, 2007 at 04:37 AM
For the most part, when writing I would use 'an' before vowels, and 'a' before consonants, regardless of pronunciation of the word in verbal speech. To make things trickier, both 'faq' and 'eff-ay-queue' are quite common in speech. So I would still write 'a FAQ' but would say either 'an eff-ay-queue' or 'a faq' in speech.