Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 8 down vote favorite
1

I was taught at an early age in the USA that when we write about our President, we are supposed to capitalize this in order to mean it's on the federal level. Is this correct to always do that? And what about saying "the presidency" — should that be "the Presidency"?

share|improve this question
4  
You may be interested in HARDY, R. J. and WEBBER, D. J. (2008), Is It “President” or “president” of the United States?. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 38: 159–182. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2007.02634.x, which discusses how this has changed in publications, stating that 'the lowercase “president” [has been] the rule rather than the exception' since the 1970s and that this change started with academic publications about the presidency. – aedia λ Oct 11 '11 at 19:21
It's certainly nothing to do with "federal level". If you write "President Obama" you should also write "Governor Perry". – DJClayworth Oct 12 '11 at 2:17

3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

I learned that in school too! But I don’t think many people actually follow that rule (which means it isn’t much of a rule).

  • The Chicago Manual of Style, usually a pretty strong authority on questions like this, not only does not have this rule; it actually endorses not capitalizing “president” even when it is used an official title before the president’s name, as in president George W. Bush. I haven’t found a lot of people doing this in practice though.

  • By contrast, AP style is what Martin Beckett suggests: capitalize only when the official title precedes the name. President Clinton has served as president since 1993. This style seems most common in practice.

  • Some writers, maybe 5% to 10%, follow the rule you described.

The question of which is correct ultimately hangs on what you mean by correct. This is one of the questions where there is no strong consensus. There is no ultimate authority, no Supreme Court of Capitalization, to settle the issue.

However there is a consensus on one point: in sentences like Thank you for joining us, Mr. President, it seems President is always capitalized.

share|improve this answer
1  
Wouldn't you generally capitalise all ranks and titles when used directly with somebodies name? – mgb Oct 11 '11 at 19:48
Well, I would, yes. It is surprising to me that that isn’t what the Chicago Manual recommends. – Jason Orendorff Oct 11 '11 at 20:43
up vote 3 down vote

In general usage I would probably only capitalise it when used as the title, e.g., "The president of the USA lives in the White House and the current occupant is President Obama".

I don't know if there is an official US government position on the matter.

share|improve this answer
‘The Economist’, which generally eschews capital letters, is almost capable of writing, ‘Barack Obama, a US president’. – Barrie England Oct 11 '11 at 19:23
up vote 2 down vote

The reference to Chicago Style is incorrect. Chicago Manual of Style recommends caps when it precedes the name (President Barack Obama) and lowercase for all other uses.

share|improve this answer
What is incorrect? CMS itself or the reference by the other question? Do you have an alternate style guide for reference or are you saying that CMS says something else? – Mitch Jul 16 '12 at 13:14

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.