HELP - Question regarding the capitalization of a title, in and out of dialog.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Robert Toy

Okay, this is a simple question for the vast majority of you folks, so bear with me.

Are the following capitalization formats correct for the title of president?

“dialog.. .” The president said sarcastically.

“The next item on the agenda Mister President is…”

Linda Perez, the President’s secretary appeared “Excuse me Mr. President you have a phone call…”

The president slammed the phone down and…
 
Last edited:

TemlynWriting

The Tony Award-winning
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
3,024
Reaction score
422
Location
Houston, TX
Website
www.temlynwriting.com
From The Copy Editor's Handbook:

Up style (The President announced) is used in many newspapers and magazines, but down style (The president announced) predominates in book publishing.

Titles and offices

In down style, a person's title or office is capitalized only when it directly precedes a personal name and is part of the name:

In 1862 President Lincoln announced . . .

In 1862 the president announced . . .

In 1862 the American president announced . . .

In 1862 American president Lincoln announced . . .

Lincoln, before he was elected president, announced . . .

As for the "Mister President" question, the usage is correct. The courtesy titles Mr., Mrs., and Ms. are never spelled out when they precede a proper name, though Ms. has no spelled-out equivalent. However, in the case of "Mister President," the word "President" is considered a proper noun, not a proper name.

I hope this helps!
 
Last edited:

reph

Fig of authority
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
5,160
Reaction score
971
Location
On a fig tree, presumably
Robert, you didn't ask about punctuation, but your sample sentences need more commas.

"Excuse me, Mr. President, you have a phone call."

'''. . . dialog,' the president said sarcastically."

Another thing to look at is use of adverbs like "sarcastically" in dialogue tags. It's been discussed over and over on the Novel Writing forum.
 

Robert Toy

reph said:
Robert, you didn't ask about punctuation, but your sample sentences need more commas.

"Excuse me, Mr. President, you have a phone call."

'''. . . dialog,' the president said sarcastically."

Another thing to look at is use of adverbs like "sarcastically" in dialogue tags. It's been discussed over and over on the Novel Writing forum.

Thanks for the tips.
Best regards,
Robert
 
Status
Not open for further replies.