Capitalisation

More examples of situations in which we don’t capitalise:

More examples of situations in which we do capitalise:

Proper names

Capitalise the names of institutions and places, including academic departments and centres.

Generic references

Only capitalise words like university, department and centre when used as part of the title of a unit. Do not capitalise them when making generic references or when referring to a unit without using its full name.

When to capitalise

Capitalise people’s titles in running text and when displayed on a resume, business card, diploma or alumni directory, or in other official/formal contexts.

When not to capitalise

Do not capitalise job descriptions or generic references to job functions in running text or when referring to a person by his/her title only:

Names of degrees

Capitalise the important words in the names of degrees in AU texts.

Note: The official English names of the degrees awarded to graduates of Danish Master’s degree programmes (candidatus) are laid down in an appendix to the University Programme Order (Uddannelsesbekendtgørelsen), where they are capitalised. Consult the University Programme Order (Uddannelsesbekendtgørelsen). See also AU Studies Administration’s page Sprog, gradsbetegnelser og uddannelsesnavne (in Danish).

• Example: Kandidatuddannelsen giver ret til betegnelsen cand.comm. (candidatus/candidata communicationis). På engelsk: Master of Arts (MA) in Communication Studies.

Names of degree programmes 

Capitalise the names of specific degree programmes, for example when names of degree programmes are displayed on a resume, business card, diploma or alumni directory, or in other official/formal contexts.

Do not capitalise generic references to degree programmes or subjects.

Do not capitalise the names of academic subjects unless (of course) the name of the subject is a language or country.

Exception

In internal communication, it is acceptable to use the names of subjects and degree programmes as shorthand proper names. Ex: He’s a professor at Musicology. This exception also applies to the names of the main academic areas (He’s studying at Business and Social Sciences).

There are two schools of thought:

1. Only capitalise the first letter in the title, as in a newspaper headline (sentence case)
2. Capitalise all the major words (title case).

When writing for AU:

• use sentence case for the names of AU publications and online (headings and subheadings on au.dk)
• When referring to books, journals and articles in your text, follow the capitalisation used in the reference itself. This means checking book titles.

Examples of book titles in title case:

• The Beliefs of Politicians: Ideology, Conflict and Democracy in Britain and Italy
• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Capitalise

• the names of newspapers and magazines (using title case for works in English)
• the titles of books, plays, songs, games, films etc. (using title case for works in English)

Follow these guidelines when using title case capitalisation of book and journal titles

• Verbs are always capitalised, even if fewer than five letters.
• Nouns are always capitalised, even if fewer than five letters.
• Unless they are the first or last words of a title, these are never capitalised:  
  • articles: a, an, the
  • conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, as
  • prepositions that are fewer than five letters long: at, by, for, from, in, into, of, off, on, onto, out, over, up, with
  • infinitives: to

Note that English book titles and the names of journals (Nature, The Lancet, The Journal of Early Modern History) are normally also italicised. 

Headings

Only capitalise the first word of headlines and headings in texts published on au.dk and in other AU publications (sentence case capitalisation). However, do remember to capitalise any elements in the headline that should be capitalised under any circumstances (people’s titles, etc.)

Exception: lists of titles and degree programmes

Titles of published articles

When capitalising journal articles, follow the format used by the author (the journal you are citing).

A balance has to be struck between so many capitals that the eyes dance and so few that the reader is diverted more by our style than by our substance. The general rule is to dignify with capital letters organisations and institutions, but not people…If in doubt use lower case unless it looks absurd. And remember that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)