Among alphabet-based languages and cultures, the capitalization of names and position titles is a universal norm of almost overriding concern. So, when a Filipino Forum member of long standing asked me recently about this matter, I decided not to try to reinvent the wheel but to reply with an essay that I wrote on exactly that subject over eight years ago. It was in response to a Tanzania-based Forum member’s account of a very traumatic personal experience about the use of position titles:
“The other day I had a fierce argument with my Australian professor, who apparently felt demeaned that I wrote her title as ‘dean of faculty’ rather than as ‘Dean of Faculty’ in my letter asking for permission to attend the wedding ceremony of a relative in a distant town. She refused to approve the letter unless I modified the phrase. But confident that I hadn’t committed any grammar mistake, I wasn’t comfortable about the change she wanted. I challenged her to show me one grammar rule demanding that all job titles be capitalized. Reddened and shaking with rage, she crumpled the letter and tossed it in a dustbin. She forced me out of her office, shouting ‘I am not available to disputant students.’
“Do we really have to capitalize every job title in sight as my professor suggested?”
In my reply, I said that there are no hard-and-fast grammar rules for capitalizing the first letters of job titles, but in formal written communication, the astute communicator does it as a matter of elementary courtesy. In a well-established social or academic hierarchy, not observing this formality will understandably be taken as a sign of disrespect—even contempt—for the position holder. It’s therefore not surprising that your Australian professor didn’t take so kindly to the way your letter addressed her. In a very real sense, you demeaned her, so her outrage towards you, while probably excessive and unbecoming of her, wasn’t at all unexpected.
We need to clearly distinguish between a position and the formal job title for it. From a purely grammar standpoint, we can routinely use lower-case characters for the first letters of a position held by a particular person, as in “Joanna Smith is the dean of faculty of X University.” But in her formal capacity, protocol demands that she be addressed as follows: “Prof. Joanna Smith, PhD, Dean of Faculty, X University.” All the more so is capitalization of the first letters of the title required when it’s used ahead of the name: “Dean of Faculty Joanna Smith.”
But do we really need to capitalize every job title in sight as your professor demanded? I don’t think so, but to get the results we want from the people we are formally writing to, we need to be sensitive to their temperament and emotional needs; if they are known to have big egos, we should capitalize their job title as a matter of course. To quibble about the grammatical correctness of doing so would really be counterproductive and—as you’ve found in your case—thoroughly disastrous. In formal communication, whether written or spoken, etiquette and precedence should override grammar correctness at all times.
As a cautionary note, however, I must hasten to add that the unbridled use of upper-case letters can be very distracting; indeed, unless needed or deserved, upper-case letters are telltale signs of exaggeration—the prose equivalent of screaming. So, as a general rule, use upper-case first letters only for the proper names of persons, places, companies and brands, and institutions as well as months and official names of holidays. Most other uses of the upper case are best left to individual judgment, but any doubt on this should be resolved in favor of the lower case.
This essay, 2086th of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the February 24, 2022 Internet edition of The Manila Times
, ©2022 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.Read this essay in my column in
The Manila Times:
The matter of capitalizing names and position titles(Next week:
Clarifying how the double possessive works) March 3, 2022
Visit Jose Carillo’s English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com. You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter and e-mail me at j8carillo@yahoo.com.
