Letters that meant something else

Text A: an original contemporary practice extract.

The parents’ group message said that the school needed help with PE on Thursday. I assumed it meant physical education and offered to organise sports equipment. The coordinator thanked me, then mentioned putting out refreshments for parents’ evening. In this group, the same two letters had become a shorthand I had not learned.

We laughed and checked whether I was still available for the actual task. I was, but another parent had ignored the message because she thought it concerned a lesson. The coordinator wrote out parents’ evening in the reminder. The abbreviation saved the sender a few seconds while leaving several recipients to invent a context. Recognising the letters had made my wrong answer feel more secure, not less.

Text B: an original contemporary practice extract.

The gardening club’s note asked volunteers to meet at the PT before unloading plants. I pictured the potting table, where we usually sorted seedlings. The organiser rang when I failed to appear at the polytunnel. That was the shortened form she used in her own planning notes, and she had copied it into the group message.

I moved to the right place and helped with the remaining trays. Afterwards, the organiser replaced the abbreviation with the full location and checked other notes intended for new volunteers. Nobody needed a lesson in remembering more letters. We needed words that named the same place for everyone. A shorthand that worked inside one person’s routine had not yet become a shared direction.

Both texts describe the misunderstandings caused by the abbreviations.

What similarities do the misunderstandings caused by the abbreviations share in these extracts? Use evidence from both texts to support your answer.