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Katie Williams writes:
I would like to see a post about capitalization, such as when is it proper to capitalize people’s titles, and when would you capitalize the name of a group (i.e. Board of Directors) - is “Board” always capitalized when you are referring to the group?
A person’s title is capitalized when it precedes the name and is therefore seen as part of the name:
President Lincoln
Bishop Sheen
Once the title occurs, further references to the person holding the title appear in lowercase:
the president
the bishop
The name of a group is capitalized when it is the full name:
the Department of Comparative Literature
the Board of Directors of Acme Industries
Further references will be written in lowercase:
the department
the board
Promotional materials frequently capitalize words like University and Board every time they occur.
Generally speaking, the use of capitals should be minimized as much as possible. In the absence of a company style guide, the best practice is to choose a style guide for yourself. I refer to several, including the AP Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style.
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7 Responses to “Capitalizing Titles of People and Groups”
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Another good topic covered, Maeve! Good job!
How about when we’re dealing with college courses? Do we always capitalize the name of the course? For instance, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration major in Marketing
You forgot to mention my pet peeve as an editor! People capitalizing professional positions or titles after a name, e.g., Jane Smith, President of ABC company; or Joe Brown, Secretary. These title should be lower case.
And I have a related question: World Wide Web is a proper noun, and as such I have for years as an editor honored that along with many of my colleagues, correcting web to Web, and maintaining “site” separate from “Web,”i.e., “Web site.”
However, I now perceive this is a losing battle and I am about ready to succumb and let my clients (many of them university professors) use “web” and “website.” One actually insists I make this change in her work.
Any thoughts on this?
Great reminders, Maeve. This echoes the principle that words used as proper names, or parts of proper names, are capitalized. This is why we write “President Obama speaks clearly” and “the president speaks clearly.”
This also applies to “mom,” “dad,” and other names for relations, as discussed in “Capitalizing Mom and Dad”: http://300daysofbetterwriting.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/capitalizing-mom-and-dad/. Capitalization rules are consistent, so we write “I gave Mom a flower” and “My mom loves flowers.” To confirm this, we can substitute a person’s name for “mom” to see if “mom” is being used as a proper name.
@Eleanor
We use “website” (one word, lowercase) and “the Web” or “the World Wide Web” (capitalized as a proper noun). We also use “Internet” or “Interweb” (both capitalized) as the proper name for the electronic data transmission network. My pet peeve is “internet” (lowercase). The debate on this continues….
@Kirk: I would capitalize the name of a course, as in “I am teaching ‘The Essentials of Writing Mechanics’ on Thursday.” On the other hand, I would not capitalize the name for a subject, topic, or field of study, as in “I am teaching a course on writing.” However, if the subject name is a proper name, I would capitalize it, as in “I am teaching English courses for the university,” but I wouldn’t capitalize “physics” in “I am teaching physics courses for the university.”
This is a timely topic! Right now, I’m discussing with a client the capitalization of “Union” and “Confederate” as they refer to the opposing sides in the Civil War. For example, the client prefers “the Union soldiers” and “the confederate army.”
I like your site, but your explanation is a little unclear. You say “President Obama” should be capped, and you say “further references” should not. What does that mean? Your examples are not enough. Does “further references” only refer to your example, “the president?” Or does it refer to all situations, even “President Obama?” How about if the first instance is “the president?” Should that be capped? How about if the second instance is identical to the first? Should both be capped — or neither — or just the first one?
Anyone want to weigh in on this:
In my work of fiction, I have a father and son. I want to use “senior” to refer to day, but all references to how to capitalize this are more along the lines of the correct way to write the name on a document, letter, etc. I want to know how to capitalize/punctuate the “senrio” in sentences. For example,
“Surely George, Sr. had stashed a flashlight or a few candles…”
vs.
“Surely George Senior had stashes a flashlight or a few candles…”
Any opinions? I’m leaning toward “a”. My only discomfort with that is whether it will cause the reader to stumble.
Er, to refer to the DAD (not day). A pox upon me.
And “senior” (not “senrio”). Sorry – there is something happening down the hall that is totally distracting me.