In Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” Polonius inquires of the prince, “What do you read, my lord?” Not at all pleased with what he’s reading, Hamlet replies, “Words, words, words.” I have previously described the communication model in which a sender encodes a message and then sends it via some channel (or medium) to a receiver, who decodes the message and, ideally, understands what was sent. Surely the most common way of encoding a message is in choosing the most appropriate words for the listener or reader.

Recently, I attended the annual meeting of the BioCommunications Association in Asilomar, Calif. Not surprisingly, the speakers, all professional communicators, were very good and spoke knowledgeably on their various topics. But something else impressed me during the informal times between presentations, and at mealtimes. These folks not only tended to speak well, but they also tended to listen well. And there’s a very strong case to be made for the importance of listening in effective communication.

This article is about a few “odds and ends” that may contribute to more precise oral and written communication.

The other day, in a discussion about implementing new branding standards for the name change to Frederick National Laboratory, Frank Blanchard, our public affairs director, related to me that he had recently been asked, “So how exactly do I pronounce FNL?” His answer was, “Eff, en, ell.” Why? Because FNL is not an acronym.