SMM Capitalisation

Modern conventions in journalism are moving more and more away from using capitals. Like excessive punctuation, capitals break up the flow of text. Although conventions vary across different media organisations, at Genesis we have decided on a policy of minimal capitalisation.

Titles & positions:

Capitalise an official’s title when it immediately precedes the person’s name. But use lower case when the title follows the name or is used alone, or is used with 'the' as a description.

Correct: Today President Muhammadu Buhari has honoured 100 people...

President Barack Obama is to hold potentially difficult talks on Monday with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The president said: “I would like to welcome the British prime minister, David Cameron.”

Incorrect: President Barack Obama is to hold potentially difficult talks on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The President said: “I would like to welcome the British Prime Minister, David Cameron.”

The basic rule is to capitalise titles, not job descriptions:

Correct: Governor Fashola of Lagos state said that ... (title)

Incorrect: The Governor of Lagos state said that ... (description)

Correct: The governor of Lagos state said that ...

Incorrect: Police Public Relations Officer (description, no caps), Deputy Superintendent (title, caps) Ahmad Mohammed, ...

Correct: The police public relations officer, Deputy Superintendent Ahmad Mohammed, ...

Or better: Deputy Superintendent Ahmad Mohammed, the police public relations officer, ...

See also the entries under The and Commas

Many descriptions of jobs or positions are clearly not titles:

Incorrect: The Former President Olusegun Obasanjo ... 

Correct: The former president Olusegun Obasanjo ...

Incorrect: The Former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, ... 

Correct: The former head of state Muhammadu Buhari ...

To avoid confusion, especially if it is a less well-known person and a long title or description, put the name first, followed by the person’s title, position or description un-capitalised and enclosed in commas. Thus:

Name, title, ... not Title Name ...

Incorrect: Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose has come in for ... 

Correct: Ayo Fayose, the Ekiti state governor, has come in for ... 

Correct: Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state has come in for ...

Incorrect: Special Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs of President Jonathan, Ben Obi, has given details ...

Correct: Ben Obi, the special adviser on inter-party affairs of President Jonathan, has given details ... 

Or better, to avoid the suggestion that Jonathan has an adviser on his affairs:

Correct: Ben Obi, President Jonathan’s special adviser on inter-party affairs, has given details ...

 Correct: General Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC)'s presidential candidate, has claimed ...

Incorrect: The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, has claimed ...

 But:

Correct: President Uhuru Kenyatta campaigned ... 

Incorrect: Uhuru Kenyatta, president of Kenya, campaigned ...

Correct: The president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, campaigned ...

Incorrect: President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, campaigned ...  

Avoid constructions such as 'the chairman, the INEC'; 'the chief executive, Rand Corporation'; 

Correct: 'the chairman of the INEC'; 'the chief executive of Rand Corporation';

Do not risk ambiguity: Use 'the speaker of the House of Representatives' in line with the recommendation for titles and positions above. However, if there is the potential for confusion (the speaker of the House or the person who is speaking in the House?) then cap the position. For this reason, the First Lady is often best capitalised, otherwise: 'He asked the first lady to say a few words' (not the second lady!).

Academic, aristocratic, corporate, official, military and religious titles:

 capitalise when they immediately precede a personal name, otherwise use lower case.

 e.g. Professor John Smith, Admiral Horatio Nelson, Chief Executive Jane Dimitriou. BUT, the history professor, the admiral.

Academic subjects: 

 use uncapped,'a graduate of communications', 'a student of religious studies'. Only capped where part of the name of an institution,'the School of Oriental and African Studies' (but not the name of a department within an institution, 'the department of history'), or the subject is a language 'a student of American studies'.

Armed forces:

 capitalise specific names, but use lower case when referring generically to the various armed services in cases where nations do not use the word as a proper noun.

 e.g. the Nigerian Army, the US Marine Corps, the Royal Air Force.

Geopolitical:

 capitalise nouns and adjectives with a geographic origin when they are used politically.

 e.g. North Nigeria, Southeast Asia, Western influence, the North-South divide, the West, Eastern Europe. BUT, north London, east Lagos, the southeast of the country (see also hyphenation);

state is always uncapped unless part of a title or name:

Correct: Lagos state governor ...

Correct: Lagos State Library Board.

Incorrect: Lagos State election candidate ...

 Similarly, local government area; uncapped unless part of an organisation's name.

Police:

Always uncapped; 'The police are ...' . Try to avoid needless capitalised names of organisations such as 'the Bauchi State Police Command spokesman' (use 'the Bauchi police spokesman'); if unavoidable use uncapped, 'the Bauchi state police command'.

Government and legislative bodies in English-speaking countries:

Capitalise ministries and departments in Nigeria and English-speaking countries when using the official name:

Correct: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, The Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the US Department of State.

 Do not cap when using a paraphrase or referring to the ministry:

Correct: the foreign ministry, the justice ministry, the petroleum ministry, the US state department.

Translations of names of ministries and departments and other institutions should be uncapped:

Correct: the French foreign ministry, the Israeli parliament.

Where the original name is used cap it (Bundestag, Duma, etc.)

 Capitalise Senate, House of Assembly (and House), at all references. The one exception is when they are used in the plural (the state houses of assembly).

 Incorrect: The Deputy Senate President; The Deputy senate President 

Correct: The deputy Senate president

Incorrect: The house of assembly elections 

Correct: The House of Assembly elections

 Incorrect: The members of the house 

Correct: The members of the House

House/Senate committees, reports and inquiries: 

all lower case, eg the Senate committee on information, media and publicity, the committee on housing, (unless a proper name is included, the committee on the Federal Capital Territory); the Jenkins report.

Courts/tribunals: 

cap the official name of international/national level courts; 'the Supreme Court of Nigeria', 'the Federal Court of Appeal' (but 'the appeal court'), 'the Federal High Court', 'the International Criminal Court'.
Lower case all other courts/tribunals at state local level; thus 'the Federal High Court, Lagos' (federal level) but 'the high court in Lagos (state level), 'a magistrates court in Kano' (no apostrophe), 'the Anambra state governorship election petitions tribunal'.

Proper names:

capitalise when these nouns are an integral part of the full name of a person organisation or thing. These nouns are lower case if they stand alone or in the plural.

e.g. Queen Elizabeth, the Sultan of Brunei, President Hosni Mubarak, General John Smith, Senator Bukola Saraki. 

BUT, the queen, the Malaysian sultan, the senator.

 Do not risk ambiguity: Use 'the speaker of the House of Representatives' in line with the recommendation for titles and positions above. However, if there is the potential for confusion (the speaker of the House or the person who is speaking in the House?) then cap the position. For this reason, the First Lady is often best capitalised, otherwise: 'He asked the first lady to say a few words' (not the second lady!).

Occupations:

 do not capitalise words that informally describe a person’s occupation.

e.g. This is farmer Jack Thomas, accountant William Smith.

 Social media:

 Always capped; Twitter, (but tweets, tweeted) Facebook.