Naming Conventions › Mnemonics › Formulate New Mnemonics

Formulate New Mnemonics

When creating new mnemonics:

• Use a standard abbreviation if one exists, such as Co. or No.
• Use the first letter in each syllable or of each compound word, for example MV for MoVe, SF for SubFile.
• Make mnemonics unique and clear.
• Use approximate synonyms to keep the number of mnemonics down. For instance, maintain, change, alter, and amend can all be described as change or CH.
• Think of the CA 2E two-character mnemonic as an abbreviation of the three-character OS/400 mnemonic. Try to keep a one-to-one correspondence between two-and three-character mnemonics; for instance DS - DSP, CH - CHG, DA - DTA.