{"id":219,"date":"2018-01-31T18:16:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T00:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=219"},"modified":"2022-03-01T09:09:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T15:09:35","slug":"capitalization-of-academic-degrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/capitalization\/capitalization-of-academic-degrees\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitalization of Academic Degrees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you’ve wondered if and when academic degrees (bachelor’s, master’s<\/a>, etc.) should be capitalized.<\/p>\n

If you read through our\u00a0Capitalization<\/a>\u00a0rules, you will notice that capitalization is sometimes a thorny area. We do not always have hard-and-fast rules to rely on; some areas are open to interpretation. 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:<\/p>\n

The Chicago Manual of Style <\/span>(CMOS<\/span>) 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.\u00a0Proper nouns, of course, should still be capitalized.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong>
\nOrlando is pursuing a bachelor of science in civil engineering.
\n<\/em>Orlando is\u00a0pursuing\u00a0a bachelor of arts in English.<\/em>
\nHe introduced Jennifer Miller, Master of Fine Arts.<\/em>
\nHe introduced Master of Fine Arts Jennifer Miller.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Associated Press Stylebook<\/em> (AP<\/em>) recommends no capitals when referring to degrees in general terms (bachelor’s<\/a>, master’s, doctorate<\/a>, associate<\/a> degree<\/em>) but always capitalizing specific degrees (Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science<\/em>).\u00a0AP <\/em>is in agreement with CMOS<\/em> that the field of study be written in lower case except when it contains a proper noun.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Orlando is <\/em>pursuing<\/em> a Bachelor of Science <\/em>in civil engineering<\/em>.<\/em>
\nOrlando is\u00a0<\/em>pursuing<\/em>\u00a0a Bachelor of Arts\u00a0<\/em>in English<\/em>.<\/em>
\nOrlando is thinking about getting a master\u2019s degree.<\/em>
\nHe introduced Jennifer Miller, Master of Fine Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our\u00a0recommendation is to pick your resource and then be consistent.<\/p>\n

There is agreement, however, that abbreviations of academic degrees are to be capitalized. CMOS<\/em> recommends omitting periods unless required for tradition or consistency (BA, BS, MA, MS, PhD<\/em>), but AP<\/em> prefers retaining the periods (B.A., B.S., M.A., M.S., Ph.D<\/em>.).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The keynote speaker tonight will be Juris Doctor\/juris doctor<\/em> Michael Abercrombie.<\/li>\n
  2. The textbook was authored by Azizah Bakar, Master of Science\/master of science.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Eleanor is finally reaching the end of her studies for her Doctorate in History\/doctorate in history<\/span>.<\/li>\n
  4. After studying hard for so many years, I definitely feel that I’ve earned my MS\/M.S.<\/em> in biology.<\/li>\n
  5. Abraham worked hard to earn a Bachelor of Science\/bachelor of science<\/em> in Geology\/geology<\/em> and then a Master of Arts\/master of arts<\/em> in French\/french<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Juris Doctor<\/li>\n
    2. Master of Science<\/li>\n
    3. doctorate in history<\/li>\n
    4. MS OR<\/strong> M.S.<\/li>\n
    5. Bachelor of Science coupled with Master of Arts OR bachelor of science coupled with master of arts, geology, French<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Perhaps you’ve wondered if and when academic degrees (bachelor’s, master’s, etc.) should be capitalized. If you read through our\u00a0Capitalization\u00a0rules, you will notice that capitalization is sometimes a thorny area. We do not always have hard-and-fast rules to rely on; some areas are open to interpretation. This is evident in the area of capitalization of academic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abbreviations","category-capitalization"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5862,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/5862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}