The Bluegrass is graduating. In the next few weeks, thousands of college seniors from UK, Transylvania and elsewhere will don robes and tassels and stroll across makeshift stages toward smiling school administrators holding coveted sheepskins.
The burning question for grammarians: Will these graduates be picking up a Bachelors Degree, a bachelor’s degree, a Bachelors’ degree, or something capitalized and punctuated differently from all of these?
Let’s start with the apostrophe because it’s simplest. Whether you’re talking about a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree, you use the possessive apostrophe. Think of a degree as something you possess, and you will remember the correct punctuation.
The rules about capitalization are more nuanced. If you’re speaking generically — as in, “You can earn a bachelor’s degree at UK” — bachelor’s degree is not capitalized. But if you’re speaking about a specific degree — as in, “My son earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Transylvania” — you use capital letters to begin the major words.
What if your son is so proud of his degree that he wants to put letters after his name? Some reference manuals suggest that you include periods: John Smith, B.A., M.A., M.D., Ph.D. The APA Publication Manual, however, recommends deleting periods: John Smith, BA, MA, MD, PhD.
My thinking is: If you have that many
degrees, you can figure it out yourself.
Neil Chethik, aka the Grammar
Gourmet, is executive director at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and
Learning (www.carnegieliteracy.org)
and author of FatherLoss and
VoiceMale. The Carnegie Center
offers writing classes and seminars
for businesses and individuals. Contact Neil at neil@carnegiecenterlex.org or
(859)254-4175.