{"id":5738,"date":"2022-01-12T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=5738"},"modified":"2022-02-11T16:08:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T22:08:59","slug":"doctoral-degree-or-doctorate-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/definitions\/doctoral-degree-or-doctorate-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Doctoral Degree<\/em> or Doctorate Degree<\/em>?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the many style items involved in American English, references to academic degrees remain a common source of uncertainty. Do we write doctoral degree <\/em>or doctorate degree<\/em>? What is the difference between a Ph.D.<\/em> and an M.D.<\/em>, and when should the credentials appear in our writing?<\/p>\n

We’ll address such questions to provide direction you can apply.<\/p>\n

What Is a Doctor<\/em>?<\/h2>\n

Doctor<\/em> is an academic title that originates from the Latin equivalent for “teacher.” It represents someone who has earned a doctoral<\/em> degree, which is the highest academic distinction awarded by a college or university. A person with a doctorate <\/em>has completed coursework, exams, a dissertation, and an articulated reasoning for that dissertation.<\/p>\n

“Doctor” has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century, when the first doctoral<\/em> distinctions were given. Today, the contracted Dr. <\/em>or Dr <\/em>also represents someone who has obtained a doctorate <\/em>in a field of study; an individual can be a “doctor” without a distinction in medicine. For example, someone might earn a Ph.D. <\/em>(Doctor of Philosophy) in history or economics.<\/p>\n

Note that doctoral <\/em>degrees are further distinguished into different types as well. The following are just a few of the titles bestowed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
D.D.<\/td>\nDivinitatis Doctor (Doctor of Divinity)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
D.D.S.<\/td>\nDoctor of Dental Surgery<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
D.O.<\/td>\nDoctor of Osteopathy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
D.V.M.<\/td>\nDoctor of Veterinary Medicine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
J.D.<\/td>\nJuris Doctor (Doctor of Law)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
M.D.<\/td>\nMedicinae Doctor (Doctor of Medicine)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ph.D.<\/td>\nPhilosophiae Doctor (Doctor of Philosophy)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In speech, we would refer to the person with a doctorate<\/em> in medicine and the person with a doctorate<\/em> in history as “doctor.”\u00a0The distinctions “Dr.,” “M.D.,” and “Ph.D.” are not interchangeable in writing, however.<\/p>\n

Only an individual who has earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree would be identified as having a “Ph.D.”; this person has established specialized knowledge in a particular area but typically cannot treat patients or prescribe medications. Someone who holds an “M.D.” has earned a Doctor of Medicine degree, meaning the person has completed medical school, can diagnose and treat patients, and can prescribe medications. A person can hold both an M.D. and a Ph.D.<\/p>\n

We would not use Dr.<\/em> before the names of those who hold only an honorary doctorate<\/em>. We also would not continue using the title in references following the first one (e.g., Dr. Emily Branson<\/em> on first mention and then Branson, Ms. Branson, or Mrs. Branson<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Doctoral <\/em>and Doctorate<\/em>: Placement and Address in Writing<\/h2>\n

According to The Associated Press Stylebook, <\/em>if mentioning a degree is needed to establish someone’s credentials, the preferred form is to forgo an abbreviation and instead use as phrase such as Emily Branson, who has a doctorate in philosophy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If referring to multiple individuals with a doctorate<\/em>, we can revert to the abbreviation to make the content less cumbersome. The abbreviation would follow the person’s full name and be set off with a comma: Emily Branson, Ph.D.; Roger Pendleton, Ph.D.; and Len Bryant, Ph.D.<\/em><\/p>\n

If the individual holds a doctorate<\/em> in medicine or psychology, dentistry, or veterinary medicine, we would place the abbreviated title “Dr.” before the name: Dr. Anthony Fowler.<\/em><\/p>\n

We would not spell the title before the name: Doctor Anthony Fowler <\/em>would be incorrect. We also would not combine the title “Dr.” with another distinction that may have been earned: e.g., Dr. Anthony Fowler, D.D., <\/em>would be incorrect.<\/p>\n

Likewise, we would drop titles such as Mr.,<\/em> Mrs.,<\/em> and Ms.<\/em> if another title is used.<\/p>\n

Correct:<\/strong> Harold H. Johanssen, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

Incorrect:<\/strong> Mr. Harold H. Johanssen, Ph.D.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The names of academic degrees and honors should be capitalized when they follow someone’s name, whether abbreviated or written in full:<\/p>\n

Bryan F. Wing, Doctor of Dental Surgery<\/p>\n

Bryan F. Wing, D.D.S.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Style for punctuation of an abbreviated degree can vary. The Chicago Manual of Style <\/em>recommends omitting periods unless they are required for consistency or tradition (i.e., use PhD <\/em>in most references). The Associated Press on the other hand favors retaining the periods (Ph.D.<\/em>). With that being said, you can choose your treatment according to your personal preference or the style guidelines you follow.<\/p>\n

So Is It Doctoral Degree or Doctorate Degree<\/em>?<\/h2>\n

You may have noticed that we’ve been italicizing the words doctoral <\/em>and doctorate <\/em>in our discussion. These are all examples of how doctoral <\/em>and doctorate <\/em>can be applied with precision in your writing.<\/p>\n

In being precise, you can use doctorate <\/em>as the identifying noun and doctoral <\/em>as the identifying adjective (descriptor) of anything that relates to a doctorate. <\/em>In other words, a doctorate<\/em> is a doctoral<\/em> degree. A doctorate<\/em> would also have included a doctoral <\/em>dissertation.<\/p>\n

The AP Stylebook<\/em>\u00a0recommends not using capitals for degrees expressed in general terms (doctorate,\u00a0doctoral degree<\/em>) but using them when capitalizing specific degrees (Doctor of Dental Surgery, Doctor of Philosophy<\/em>).<\/p>\n

AP and CMOS\u00a0agree that the field of study be written in lower case except when it contains a proper noun (e.g., Ph.D. in history, Ph.D. in French<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/h3>\n

Capitalization of Academic Degrees<\/a>
\nIs It Associate Degree or Associate’s Degree?<\/a>
\nIs It Bachelors Degree or Bachelor’s Degree?<\/a>
\nIs It Masters Degree or Master’s Degree?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the many style items involved in American English, references to academic degrees remain a common source of uncertainty. Do we write doctoral degree or doctorate degree? What is the difference between a Ph.D. and an M.D., and when should the credentials appear in our writing? We’ll address such questions to provide direction you can […]<\/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":[32,21,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abbreviations","category-capitalization","category-definitions"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738"}],"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=5738"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5819,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738\/revisions\/5819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}