Just curious. MLA is a fine style guide as well. We usually find that AP and CMOS sufficiently cover the ground, but people should use the style guides that best apply to the areas in which they are working or studying. I quickly scanned the long list of questions and perhaps missed the answer to this question: If I list diploma and degrees in a questionnaire, do I capitalize them or not? We recommend no capitalization when referring to degrees, diplomas, and the like when referred to generically.
Thanks this is very helpful. Is the last sentence correct concerning capitalisation. I am writing a cover letter for a job application. As the post states, our recommendation is to pick your resource and then be consistent. But as far as I can tell, the CMOS only recommends capitalizing job titles, degrees, military ranks, etc. Can you provide some clarification? As we mention in the article, capitalization and especially capitalization of academic degrees is a thorny area, open to interpretation.
It is not necessary to capitalize. Because it is a Latin phrase, cum laude should be italicized. An academic subject is not generally capitalized unless it is being used to form part of a department name or an official course name, or the word itself is a proper noun e.
Why do I see that associate degree is not possessive? Which of the following is correct, as far as capitalization and possessiveness?
Neither guide recommends capitalizing the degree when referred to generically. Academic subjects are lowercased. Jenny grew up in Detroit and obtained an associate degree in criminal justice. Leave a Comment or Question: Cancel reply. Please ensure that your question or comment relates to the topic of the blog post. Unrelated comments may be deleted. If necessary, use the "Search" box on the right side of the page to find a post closely related to your question or comment.
Your email address will not be published. This is evident in the area of capitalization of academic degrees as you will see from the different approaches of two of the leading American English reference books: The Chicago Manual of Style CMOS recommends that names of degrees, fellowships, and the like are lowercased when referred to generically, but to capitalize the name of a degree when it is displayed on a resume, business card, diploma, alumni directory, or anywhere it looks like a title rather than a description.
Examples: Orlando is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering. Our recommendation is to pick your resource and then be consistent. Share Tweet Email. Yvonne Condo says:. August 13, , at am. Jane says:. August 19, , at pm. Kristin says:. January 6, , at pm. January 7, , at pm.
Emily says:. April 23, , at pm. April 25, , at pm. Kim says:. July 2, , at am. July 7, , at pm. Anne Marie says:. March 4, , at pm. March 9, , at pm. Lassy says:. September 9, , at am. September 11, , at am. Lamar says:. July 10, , at pm. July 16, , at pm. Julie says:. October 5, , at pm. October 10, , at pm. Gloria Gibson says:. March 24, , at am.
April 2, , at am. Marci says:. July 1, , at am. JAH says:. July 8, , at am. July 8, , at pm. Lilly says:. July 24, , at am.
July 25, , at am. Gretchen says:. July 31, , at am. August 2, , at pm. Lea says:. September 11, , at pm. October 26, , at pm. October 27, , at am.
Helen says:. June 25, , at pm. June 27, , at am. Richard says:. August 6, , at pm. January 28, , at am. March 24, , at pm. CM says:. January 22, , at pm. January 31, , at pm. April 19, , at am. May 31, , at pm. Robin says:. June 7, , at pm. June 23, , at pm. Hugh O. August 3, , at am. August 4, , at am. Claudia says:. September 12, , at am. September 13, , at am. Cathy says:.
September 22, , at pm. September 23, , at pm. Anne says:. October 7, , at am. October 8, , at pm. Catharine says:. Katie says:. October 24, , at am. October 25, , at pm. Elizabeth says:. October 30, , at pm. October 31, , at pm. Arah Pinson says:. November 1, , at pm. January 5, , at am. Katherine says:. February 24, , at am. February 26, , at pm. Eden Carr says:. September 30, , at am. Leslie says:. March 13, , at am. Willie says:. March 23, , at am. Bill M. April 11, , at am.
April 14, , at am. Suresh G says:. April 28, , at am. April 30, , at pm. Susan says:. May 9, , at am. May 10, , at pm.
May 17, , at am. May 19, , at pm. Heidi says:. May 28, , at am. May 30, , at pm. Ashley says:. June 13, , at pm. June 15, , at am. Jason says:. June 14, , at am. June 16, , at pm. Gulmira says:. July 25, , at pm. July 27, , at am. Capitalize named chairs or professorships that include the academic title and titles such as Distinguished Professor. Use lowercase for terms denoting roles, such as nurse, coach, citizen, or historian, when they precede a name. When the academic degree functions as a title following the name in a formal context such as a list, capitalize or use the abbreviation:.
Avery, Professor Emeritus. Search for the formal degree name in the catalog and capitalize accordingly. For alums just capitalize their degree as told. In running text, capitalize full titles of institutions and departments. Use lowercase for partial titles:. Capitalize the official names of buildings. Use official names of campus buildings in formal campus publications.
Refer to the University Building Names list. Use lowercase for incomplete building names unless the word begins a sentence or is a formal name:. Separate parts of a sentence. Em Dash The em dash is perhaps the most versatile of punctuation marks. She likes all kinds of music—classical, jazz, country, and rock. Matt joined the company a month before it went public—and long before it became the billion dollar giant it is today. En Dash The en dash is used to represent a span or range of numbers, dates, or time.
Hawktober Weekend will be held Oct. Joins or separates words. In general, the move is away from hyphenated words, whether used as nouns or adjectives: fundraising groundbreaking bestseller Generally, do not hyphenate when using a prefix with a word starting with a consonant but there are many exceptions. The following rules are constant: Except for cooperate and coordinate, use a hyphen if the prefix ends in a vowel and the word that follows begins with the same vowel.
Use a hyphen if the word that follows is capitalized. Use a hyphen to join doubled prefixes: sub-subparagraph. Use a hyphen with the prefix ex, the relative prefix self, and when using all as a prefix ex-mayor, self-serve, all-powerful Other notes: With words beginning with the prefix co-, retain the hyphen when forming nouns, adjectives, and verbs that indicate occupation or status, such as co-worker and co-founder. Use a hyphen to join doubled prefixes, as in sub-subparagraph.
A hyphen is needed with compound words that must be distinguished from homonyms, such as in the case of recover and re-cover. Use a hyphen when the last letter of the prefix and the first letter of the following word are the same, such as with pre-engineering, pre-election, or pre-establish. While nonprofit is one word, use a hyphen with terms such as non-credit, non-student, and non-discrimination. Use a hyphen in any case if not using one would create confusion with another word such as re-cover vs.
She works full time in the computer laboratory. Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective when used as a modifier before a noun: tree-ripened peach well-qualified instructor a one-way road However, when compound modifiers come after a noun, they are not hyphenated: The peach was tree ripened.
The instructor is well qualified. The road is one way. A dot used at the end of a sentence to indicate that it is the end. Do not use periods with acronyms or initialisms: UNICEF works on behalf of children's rights, survival, development and protection. It is divided into five themed floors.
You have a choice of two days: Tuesday or Thursday. Surrounding a quotation, direct speech, or a literal title or name. Exclamation points and question marks that are not part of a quotation also go outside.
We develop our degree programs with this in mind. Use a semicolon to separate two independent clauses that are not joined by a conjunction: Boston is two hours northeast of Hartford; New York City is two hours south. Place a semicolon before an adverb used transitionally between independent clauses: Some students arrived late; however, they were still able to register on time.
Separate items in a series with a semicolon when they contain internal punctuation: January consists of 31 days; February, 28; March, 31; and April, He is one alumnus who went on to do great things. Alumni Affairs sponsors a number of trips during the year. Sales and marketing strategies are formed through a network of business advisers.
A maximum of four tickets will be distributed per person. Louise traveled into 14 different states on her journey. Exceptions: Use numerals, even if the number is below 10, when indicating the following: ages, figures containing decimals, statistics, percentages, academic credits, sums of money, times of day, days of the month, chapters in a book, latitude and longitude, degrees of temperature, dimensions, measurements, and proportions.
Do not use superscripts. This year is the University's 60th anniversary. Children usually begin kindergarten when they are 5 years old. Work begins at a. She is 4 credits short of earning her degree.
Only 3 percent of those attending needed additional assistance. Days of the month— omit rd, th, st and nd following the numerals: April 6, June 1 Classes begin on Sept. Date ranges—use an en-dash to represent a span of dates. Avoid using the ampersand. The performance will be held from March 26—30 in Lincoln Theater.
Special discounted tickets will be available on March 29 and Spans of years are written as follows, using an en dash see "Dash" above : —65, —, —04, —86, —03 Spell out numbers of centuries from first through ninth and lowercase the third century, the ninth century , but use numerals from the 10th century on the 12th century, the 20th century.
Do not hyphenate a century unless it modifies a noun: They own a 20th-century house furnished with 19th-century antiques. Traditional Chinese medicine began many thousands of years before the 21st century. Do not use zeros with even hours. Use noon and midnight rather than 12 a.
The group will meet at noon. A million or more—spell out the word "million. Numbers below should be hyphenated when they consist of two words: Fifty-five houses now stand on Main Street.
A total of 55 houses now stand on Main Street. When numbers are next to each other in a sentence and where the above rules would have them both be spelled out or both be written as numbers, change the second reference to the opposite form.
After introducing individuals by their full names, refer to them in subsequent references by their last name only EXCEPT in the case of profile or feature articles about current undergraduate students, where it is acceptable to use first names on subsequent references if it better fits the tone of the story. Use full name on first reference. If the person has a nickname, put it in double quotation marks just before the last name.
On subsequent references, identify current undergraduate students by first name in profile and feature articles, and all others, including faculty, staff, and alumni, by last name.
Example: Medallion Scholarship program. Form letters are addressed to groups. The salutation should, therefore, be plural.
Capitalize key words, lower case articles and conjunctions, and end with a colon. Example : "Dear Parents and Family Members:". Skip to main content. Proper nouns —a specific individual name: Kalamazoo. University exceptions The following are the only common nouns which should be capitalized in publications and correspondence of Western Michigan University.
Titles Used in text —In text, titles are capitalized only if they precede the name of the individual. Capitalize President Edward Montgomery spoke at the
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