How to Know when to Capitalize Job Titles

Step-by-Step Guide

1. 1

   Step 1: Capitalize proper nouns.

   This is the most general rule of capitalization.
   
   It means that you should use uppercase for the unique names of specific entities (like “Paris,” “Saturn,” “Alex,” or “Green Peace”) but lowercase for “common nouns” that refer to a class of entities (like “city,” “planet,” “baseball player,” or “environmental organization”).
   
   In the case of job titles, this means that most job titles are not capitalized.
   
   However, a title that refers to an official, one-of-a-kind position, like the “Queen of England,” should be capitalized., If a specific title comes immediately before a name and refers to a specific person, it’s usually part of a proper noun, and therefore usually should be capitalized.
   
   That is, “reverend James” should be “Reverend James,” and “doctor Smith” should be “Doctor Smith.”Note that this rule only holds true for titles that have been officially conferred or awarded.
   
   For instance, you would capitalize, “Professor Anita Brown,” “Judge Regina Blake,” and “President Flora Barnum,” but you would not capitalize titles like “musician,” “artist,” or “race car driver”: “This song is performed by musician Louis Armstrong.” Another way to determine if a job immediately preceding a person’s name should be capitalized is to consider if it’s a title or a description.
   
   That is, “Director of Marketing Joanna Russell” is correct if that’s Joanna’s official title.
   
   If you’re only describing her position, you wouldn’t capitalize her job: “marketing chief Joanna Russell.”, At the end of a letter, email, or other message, your job title should be capitalized.
   
   Instead of signing off as “John Smith, editor in chief,” your signature line should read “John Smith, Editor in Chief.”, If you are using a person’s title as a replacement for their name, especially when directly addressing them, you should capitalize it.For example: “Can you make it to my graduation, Dad?” or “With all due respect, General, I disagree,” or “I saw the Queen of England ride by today.” This rule also holds true for terms of respect, like “Your Honor” or “Your Highness”. , Some titles of jobs like endowed professorships or fellowships are proper nouns because they are one-of-a-kind.
   
   Because the job titles in this case are proper nouns, be sure to capitalize them even when they’re written after a person’s name: “Georgina Bourassa, the Barnaby G.
   
   Gray Professor of Circuses, taught for five years.” , That is, always capitalize the first, last, and principal words in a title, but don’t capitalize unimportant words like prepositions (such as, “of,” “about,” or “with”), conjunctions (such as, “and,” “but,” or “or”), or articles (“a,” “an,” or “the”).For example, “associate director of research and development for the cancer unit at Pharmacon” should be: “Associate Director of Research and Development for the Cancer Unit at Pharmacon”.
2. 2

   Step 2: Capitalize job titles that precede someone’s name.

3. 3

   Step 3: Capitalize job titles when signing your name.

4. 4

   Step 4: Capitalize titles when they’re used in lieu of a name.

5. 5

   Step 5: Use uppercase with endowed positions.

6. 6

   Step 6: Remember to use title case when capitalizing.

Detailed Guide

About the Author