Who’s important enough to have a capital letter?
I bet you think you know when to use a capital letter.
After all, by the age of six, you’d been taught to begin every sentence with a capital letter.
By this time, you'd also been shown how to use a capital letter for the names of people, places, days of the week, and for the pronoun, I.
In fact, by the age of seven, you were expected to use capital letters correctly! Wow...
So why is it that as an adult, it seems to keep getting more and more confusing? I mean, how many times have you written something and wondered whether to use a capital letter for a specific word or phrase?
The thing is, whether or not to use a capital letter is much more difficult than you think.
Did you know, the twelfth edition of THE BLUE BOOK OF GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION provides 16 different rules for using capitals?
The Oxford style guide for writing and working with text in English, NEW HART’S RULES, has a 12-page chapter just on using capitals properly! It’s no wonder we are left in despair when making a decision about that tricky capital letter!
I wonder if that’s the reason why some adults choose to write everything in capital letters even though we generally think it's 'shouty' and rude!
As a proofreader, understanding this sort of complexity is part and parcel of my job.
So, in this post, I’m going to focus on just ONE rule related to capitalisation…and it’s a rule that's misused everywhere! So, let’s start…
Would you use a capital letter for someone’s occupation or title?
For example, is this a police officer or is it a Police Officer?
Well, firstly we need to understand the difference between an occupation and a title of rank, office, or relationship because this affects whether or not to use a capital letter.
Let’s think about
TITLES OF RANK OR OFFICE OR RELATIONSHIP…
The general rule is a title or rank, office, or relationship is written in lowercase letters, e.g.:
president, queen, prime minister, project manager, head teacher
BUT… if the title comes before the person’s name, capital letters are used, e.g.:
King Charles, President Biden, Head Teacher Helen Smith
Is this helpful so far?
As always, there are exceptions to the rules!!
Let’s now look at a few exceptions for the general rules about titles.
Sometimes, if the name is not an essential detail to the sentence, then a comma is put after the title and before the name, but the title is NOT in capitals, e.g.:
prime minister, Winston Churchill
When we write about a specific holder of a title, where we know the person who's being referred to, and where their name isn't used, capital letters are often used, e.g.: a presentation by the Prime Minister a speech by the President
There are some special compound (more than one word) titles that we just know should have capital letters, e.g.: Dalai Lama, Prince of Wales, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary
Many writers stick to the basic rule that the title doesn't have capital letters unless it comes before the person’s name.
This makes it a lot simpler!
The most important thing is being consistent throughout your writing.
Let’s move onto OCCUPATIONS...
It starts to get a bit trickier now because when you refer to someone, are you referring to their title or their occupation? For example, is ‘general manager’ the person’s title or their position? What about ‘head teacher’?
Well, don’t be surprised to learn that the difference between titles and occupations gets really blurry and confusing!
But, once you've made the decision that you're referring to someone’s OCCUPATION, you don’t use capital letters, e.g.:
The director, Stuart Brown, attended the presentation.
The football coach, Antony Hughes, won an award.
Now that you know the basic rules for whether or not to use capital letters with titles and occupations, it's straightforward, isn't it?
NO, it's not!
For example, some companies like to use capital letters for occupations because it gives a feeling of importance, respectability, and formality.
So, instead of writing…
The project manager for planning, Alexis Shore, is responsible for formulating the plan.
they’d write…
The Project Manager for planning, Alexis Shore, is responsible for formulating the plan.
Some companies might even write…
The Planning Project Manager, Alexis Shore, is responsible for formulating the plan.
There are subtle differences, but which one is right?
It’s very easy to get carried away with the rules of using capital letters for titles of rank or office, and occupations. You could go round and round and totally confuse the whole issue.
The key is to understand the basic rules, and then make an informed decision about whether or not to style it differently.
At this point, it all comes down to your style.
It’s up to you to decide on your style. The vital thing is that you stick to what you've decided and use the same style everywhere and every time!
It is particularly important for a business to stick to ONE style – on their website, in their email communication, on social media, in their blogs. This means everyone in the business sticking to ONE style too. If not, it affects the respectability and professionalism of the brand.
So, which style will YOU use? In fact, if you own a business, which style have YOU used?
I’m a proofreader…so, if you can't make up your mind on a style, get in touch and I'll get it right for you.
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