Names

Give the person's title, forename and surname on the first mention. Then use either their surname or their title and surname throughout:

<aside> ✅ Dr Malcolm Strong has published some new research into how to make llamas move faster. Dr Strong is certain he can build on this work in future.

</aside>

If the tone of the communication is more informal, refer to them by their first name rather than surname after the first mention:

<aside> ✅ Professor Jennifer King is in charge of the research project. If you're interested and want to find out more, you'll find Jennifer in the library.

</aside>

Job titles

Only capitalise job titles when there is a single person in that role:

<aside> ✅ Today I met the Dean of Medicine.

</aside>

<aside> ✅ Professor Andy Long is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham.

</aside>

If there is more than one person with that job title, use lower case:

<aside> ✅ I'm an assistant professor.

</aside>

<aside> ✅ I had a productive meeting with the marketing assistant.

</aside>

Postnominals

These are titles or letters placed after the name of a person to show they have certain qualifications, accreditations or honours.

Before you reel off such a list, ask yourself: is including them really relevant to what you're writing, or does it just look like you're bragging?

If you absolutely have to include them, here's the order they should go in:

  1. Civil honours
  2. Military honours