With commencement fast approaching June 17, a few things to remember:
- Students receive a bachelor of arts or a master of fine arts, for example, but pursue bachelor’s or master’s degrees.
- PhD, not P.h.D. (BA, BMus, BArch, MS, DEd, etc.)
- The title “Dr.” is reserved for individuals with medical degrees.
- Style for class years and majors: Don’t include the major for MBA and JD degrees: Thomas Morales, BA ’00 (Spanish), MBA ’04, JD ’09. For two degrees in the same major: Helen Moore, MS ’15, PhD ’20 (anthropology). (For more, see academic degrees.)
- Latin honors (always lowercase, not italicized): cum laude (with honors, top 10 percent of the graduating class); magna cum laude (with high honors, top 5 percent); summa cum laude (with highest honors, top 2 percent).
- For retired faculty members, use the gender-neutral emerit—Professor Emerit Jane Doe or John Doe, professor emerit—unless the faculty member prefers an alternative such as emerita or emeritus.
- For the correct titles of faculty with named positions, check the named faculty positions smartsheet (click “Sign in with Microsoft” and use your Duck ID and password, if prompted).
- For alumni: alumna refers to a woman; alumnus refers to a man; alumnae refers to women only; alumni refers to men or to women and men; alum is informal and gender neutral. Find more in the style guide on academic degrees and academic titles, departments, programs, schools and colleges, and time of day.
- Quotation marks are used for titles of research papers, dissertations, and other articles; chapters; speeches; and other shorter works. The title of my dissertation is “Examining Patterns and Predictors of Response to Mathematics Intervention.”
Questions? Email editor Matt Cooper, University Communications.