CvilleEditor

commacrazy:

Did you know you’re not supposed to lowercase job titles in running text? It’s true, really it is! Even though I’ve found validation on this in almost every style guide imaginable, there’s probably no single edit I feel more defensive of than this one. Why? Two reasons: 1) I see it wrong way, way more often than I see it right, and 2) I feel like the edit is essentially an insult—I’m somehow suggesting that someone’s job isn’t as important as they think it is. But the proof is in the pudding, folks—and here’s the pudding:

From AP Styleguide

Capitalize titles preceding and attached to a name, but use lower case if the title follows a name or stands by itself. Long titles should follow the name.

·         President Karen Morse

·         Karen Morse, president of Western Washington University

·         Mayor Richard Stevens the mayor

·         Presidents Bush and Clinton

From Chicago Manual of Style

8.21 Capitalization, the general rule. Civil, military, religious, and professional titles are capitalized when they immediately precede a personal name and are thus used as part of the name. Titles are normally lowercased when following a name or used in place of a name.

From Yahoo! Style Guide

Capitalize a person’s title only when it’s used directly before a name. This rule includes titles pertaining to government positions (like president, senator, mayor, ambassador, chief justice), religious positions, and other organizational positions (like chair, treasurer, general manager).

From Lapsing Into a Comma (Bill Walsh)

A basic tenet of journalistic style is that titles are capitalized only when they are used as a title directly before a name.