Legal Writing

Capitalizing Titles of People and Groups

By Maeve Maddox

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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Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on September 01, 2010 (boomark / email).