The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll, Dr. Suess, and Doctor Who

What’s in a title, right? Wrong!

Should you write Dr or Dr. or Doctor Jekyll?

Not sure?

Well, I’m not surprised! It can be totally confusing! And it doesn’t help that it changes from one book cover to another…

Or that it changes from one production to the next…

So, let’s look at this in a bit more detail because the next time you write to someone with a title, you want to get it right, don’t you?

Firstly, there is a difference between an ABBREVIATION and a CONTRACTION.

Not sure what they are?

Well, an ABBREVIATION leaves out the end of a word, such as Lieut. (Lieutenant), and a CONTRACTION leaves out the middle part of the word, such as Revd (Reverend)…

This is the crucial difference because, traditionally, abbreviations end with a full stop while contractions don’t. So, if we go with this rule, it looks like this…

This seems quite straightforward so far, doesn’t it?

But then you have to add in the fact that there's a difference between American English and British English, and we have another thing to consider!

Basically, the US style uses more full stops than the British style – even with contractions. This means they would use Mr.

So, what happens when we think about these examples…

Do I write “Dr Jekyll” or “Dr. Jekyll?”

Do I write “Mr Hyde” or “Mr. Hyde?”

The simple answer is … if you’re writing in the British English style, you don’t put a full stop after each title: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

But, if you’re writing in the American English style, you would definitely put a full stop after each title before the surname: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

These ‘rules’ are published in “New Hart’s Rules: The Oxford Style Guide” which “is a guide to style designed for people writing and working with text in English.” It not only explains the ‘house style’ used at Oxford University Press, but it also describes current practices in all areas of writing and publishing.

So, I think I’ll stick with this book for the answers!

Yet, you only have to do an engine search on the internet to realise that there are different opinions. Some websites state that you have a choice whether to use a full stop or not after titles that have been contracted. Some say that many British writers now follow the US style.

BUT…should we? 

Matthew Engel, a British writer, journalist, and editor, wrote a book entitled “That’s the way it crumbles: The American Conquest of English”. He believes that the year 2120 is a plausible guesstimate for when American English will have completely absorbed the British English!

But should we give into this 'conquest'?

I believe that, as confusing as it is, as difficult as it may be, we need to be determined to understand, and use, the British English version of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

But if that fails, we can always forget everything to do with ABBREVIATIONS and CONTRACTIONS and just write 'Doctor' Jekyll!