In the thesis overview, abbreviations are often defined in a list (headed: “Abbreviations used”) and also in the text when they first occur. Nevertheless, you should redefine them in the aims section.

Abbreviations in the aims section

In the aims section readers are often bombarded with undefined forms of abbreviations. Redefine them, as in this example (Raimo A. Lahti, 2005).

The cumbersome abbreviation

Try to replace a long and cumbersome abbreviation with a reader-friendly substitute. In one thesis the subject was hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. The accepted abbreviation, HNPCC, was used frequently throughout the thesis. However, the list of abbreviations tells us that Lynche syndrome is synonymous with HNPCC. So, as a non-specialist, I suggested in my course on scientific writing that the abbreviation could have been replaced with Lynche syndrome; alternatively with the/this syndrome. How much easier the text would have been to read with such a substitute.

However, in my May 2011 course, one participant (apparently an HNPCC expert) said that Lynche syndrome is no longer in use. So, to correct myself, instead of the words for this syndrome, you can use, for example, this type of cancer or the cancer form studied or just the/this cancer.