Names & Job Titles

Names

• Use a person’s first and last name the first time they are mentioned in a story, use last names on the second reference, do not use courtesy titles such as Mr., Mrs., Miss, or Ms. unless they are part of a direct quotation or are needed to differentiate between people who have the same last name

• Refer to professionals by name with title, full name, or last name (Professor Martinez, Rosa Martinez, Martinez)

• Refer to students and alumni by full name, last name, or first name (consider the context—friendly and conversational: first name, informational or congratulatory: full name or last name)

• For formal purposes, when listing the names of international students who are using an American name, the American name should be set off with parentheses. Example: Ziyi (Paul) Peng.

• Featured professionals on content pages

  • Consider the context when referring to professionals and experts; refer to professionals consistently throughout the page: full name, last name, first name, and title with last name are appropriate depending on the context for the writing. (JoAnn has a PhD in English and a background in chemistry; Dr. Wilcox is also the founding member; University of Minnesota psychology professor Juan Sanchez)

Titles

See section 8.28 of The Chicago Manual of Style for details on the capitalization of academic titles and their capitalization. The Chicago Manual of Style is available to use for free for UMN staff, faculty, and students.

Capitalization

• Titles are uppercase before the name (Professor Marvin Marshall) unless they’re descriptive (professor of anthropology Marvin Marshall).

• Do not capitalize titles that follow a name. Example: Toni Lee, associate professor, is among this year's honorees.

• Exception: Job title capitalization both before and after the name is for Regents Professors and holders of endowed chairs or professorships. Example: Emily Jupiter, Regents Professor in Agricultural Education.

• Exception: Names and job titles presented on separate lines as a list or a stand-alone item, for example, in a signature, may both be capitalized. Example:
  
  Marvin Marshall
  Professor
  
  Toni Lee
  Professor and Chair
  Department of Anthropology
  
  Juan Sanchez
  Chair, Department of English

Emerit, Emeritus, Emerita, Emeriti, Emeritae

From Wikipedia: "Emeritus is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus."

When you list a faculty member with this title, the professional title (professor) comes before the honorific (emeritus/emerita). Use the title/rank the person was at the time of retirement (associate professor emerita).

• Using the gender-neutral word "emerit" when referring to one person is preferred.
• Use "emeriti" for a mixed-gender group.
• If the context requires it, the singular, "emeritus" to refer to one male-identifying former faculty or "emerita" to refer to one female-identifying former faculty can be used.
• If the context requires it, use the plural, "emeriti," when referring to an all-male-identifying group and "emeritae" for an all-female-identifying group.