Friday, January 16, 2009

Speak Right

From January 12—
Degree Titles
When you are writing phrases like "bachelor's degree," "masters of arts degree," and "doctor of philosophy degree" use all lower-case spelling. Less formally, these are often abbreviated to "bachelor's," "master's," and "doctorate." The only time to capitalize the spelled-out forms of degree names is when you are specifying a particular degree's name: "Master of English Composition." However, abbreviations BA, MA, and PhD are all capitalized. In modern usage periods are not usually added.

From January 13–
Female vs. Woman
It may be inconsistent, but the pattern of referring to females as women performers, professionals, etc. is very traditional, dating back at least to the 14th century. People who do this cannot be accused of committing an error.

3 comments:

creative kerfuffle said...

what, pray tell, prompted this tidbit of knowledge? when did they start referring to us as broads?

Anonymous said...

Eh. "Female" is the adjective, "woman" is the noun. I'm still gonna change it, not least because "women drivers," "women doctors," etc., sounds so derisive.

broad minded said...

ck- haha! i guess when they realized they could make us work as hard or harder and pay us less? it was from my new common errors in english desk calendar.

yes, women drivers does not VERY negative. i agree marian. maybe just because something is considered the norm, doesn't make it right??