How to write the term: bachelor's degree
80Why would I want to know how to spell bachelor's degree?
Well, ironically enough, I have a degree in English and yet, when confronted with having to write about my degree itself, I discovered that I was not completely certain how. Turns out that, bombastic know-it-all that I am, I still wasn't totally confident about when and how the whole big "B" little "b" thing played out. I was even wondering about the apostrophe: When do I capitalize "bachelor" and when does it get the apostrophe and the "S?" I thought I knew, but I wanted to be sure. So, I decided to find out. What I discovered is that usage is almost entirely subject to style guides. Here's how it works:
Question: Is It “Bachelor” or “bachelor’s?”
Answer: Yes. Here's some "standard" rules:
- Based on what I found, the correct standard usage when referring to a specific degree is to capitalize and use the singular noun with its relevant prepositional phrase, like Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy etc. (It should be noted that junior college degrees use the preposition "in" not "of" for their degrees, as in an Associate in Arts.)
- The correct standard form for general reference to these degrees is to use the possessive form of "bachelor" - meaning with the apostrophe and "s" - and to drop the caps, as in "She has her bachelor's degree."
- Correct standard form when abbreviating is to capitalize the main component words and use periods: B.A., M.A., M.B.A., Ph.D., etc.
- When referencing your degree and major, do not capitalize your major unless your major is in some subject that is a proper noun (like English or French etc.). Correct standard use would be: "I have a bachelor's degree in business accounting." A capitalized example would be: "I have a bachelor's degree in English."
I use the term "standard form" because this form can be easily verified in widely acknowledged and expert resources like the Associated Press Stylebook, Encyclopedia Britannica Online and even my big ol' Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary--not to mention how it's written on actual degrees (I've included a couple so you can see). Note the capital letters and the lack of an apostrophe "S."
The problem with the term "standard," though, is that people interpret that to mean "etched in stone." The simple fact of grammar, and perhaps the great big sigh of relief that came with my English degree, is that "standard usage" is a squishy thing; there's lots of stuff that doesn't submit to some iron-fisted grammatical decree. Oddly enough, it's this lack of structure that explains why so many people hated English when they were in school. People like concrete facts. Definite boundaries and solid rules help us know that we are on track; they provide us with a feeling of control.
So, that said, if you're looking for the short answer to "What's the right way to write 'bachelor's degree?'" well, there you go. Do what I wrote up there and you will be technically correct. However, if you're interested in why and when those rules can change then read on, and you'll see where the style guides come in.
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Style Guides: He Who Makes One Makes the Rules
I will repeat, what I wrote up there is totally correct. If it's good enough for the Associated Press, which pretty much tells everyone from reporters to professors what to do, then, you're good to go. However, just because that is the correct way to write it does not mean that it is the only way to write it that is correct. Big difference. This is the squishy stuff I was talking about before, and this is where style guides come in.
Style guides are writing guides put out by schools, companies, non-profits, government agencies, you name it; if they're big, they probably put one out. Big ones besides the AP Stylebook mentioned up above are Chicago Manual of Style, APA and MLA Handbook, but corporations and colleges have them too. Totally at random, you can pull up style guides that completely destroy the rule we just neatly clarified.
Take San Diego State or Washington State universities as arbitrary proof. Pull up their sites (WSU screenies above, both links below) and you will see that their style guides state that the specific terms for the degrees NOT be capitalized as I have done above. These two style guides are in conflict with "The Bible of the Newspaper Industry" as my AP Stylebook's cover accurately declares, and they explicitly state that the specific terms should not be capitalized, as in "bachelor of arts" and "master of science." They seem to contradict the AP people, the Encyclopedia Britannica people and even my Webster's unabridged. These sites suggest that capitalization should not be used at all.
So, who is right, the Associated Press or San Diego State? Is there even a rule at all?
Well the answer is: Yes, there is a rule.
But the rule is: Know who is going to read your work.
It's the old "know your audience" thing, just focused on a slightly different detail. So, if it really, really matters; if you are submitting written work to a particular entity - be it academic, government or professional - and you don't want to come off as if you don't know how to write, find out what style guide they use and conform to what they expect. It might take a little time, maybe a phone call or two, but the effort will prevent your paper, article or manuscript from being viewed as "wrong."
In Conclusion
The bottom line is that, unless you have some really, really anal-retentive reader, you're probably not going to be hurt if you just stick with the method that I illustrated first up there. However, if you are a student at a university that has a posted style guide to use, you may discover how picky some professors can really be.
Whatever you do, once you pick a form for writing this stuff, make sure you stick to that method throughout the entire work. Don't change strategies in the middle of your paper, letter or résumé. Midstream shifts are guaranteed to draw notice to whichever method that you use, particularly if your reader is the picky type. More than likely, though, most readers aren't going to have any clue - remember, I have an English degree and I still had to look it up. It's just not the kind of thing people really take the time to know (unless you're the wacky English major type like me). So stick to your guns, whichever method that you choose. Besides, you have resources (below) to defend yourself no matter which way you decide to go.
__________
Works cited:
Books-
The Associated Press Stylebook - 2007
Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - circa 2001
Links-
Encyclopedia Britannica Online-
http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9362439 ( June 9, 2008)
San Diego State:
http://bfa.sdsu.edu/editorial/academicusage.htm (June 9, 2008)
Washington State:
http://identity.wsu.edu/editorial-style/capitalization.aspx (June 9, 2008)
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Comments
Yeah, now if I can just figure out how to make it pay! LOL. Thanks for the comment.
Thank you! I was trying to figure out how to write Bachelor of Arts on my resume. It seemed that nobody used the term the same way twice! Thank you for clearing this up!
You're quite welcome. It is confusing. English is a trainwreck grammatically. LOL. Very happy this could help, and thanks for letting me know. :)
This column just goes to show that a creative mind and a good writer can make anything interesting! Good luck! As someone who's also earned an English degree, you'll find a way ... as many of us have!
Thanks, Desert. This is the little hub that could. It's as close to evergreen as I've come so far, and I'm very happy with it. As for the finding a way, I'll just keeping plugging away and see what fate will bring. Appreciate the kind words.
I thought you were going to write bachelor o'farts. Of course you could just go on and get a phD. . . or is it PhD?
LOL Rochelle, I would never stoop to such base humor as potty jokes. I'm shocked that you could think me capable of such a thing!
:P
Maybe you could offer degrees and diplomas in your incorporated enterprise.
Ok.. THAT is an awesome idea. I could charge insane prices for them and make them ridiculously easy to get.
I guess we each take away something different when we read someone’s work. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a style guide and as a junior hubber of advancing years I probably should go and have a look. Thank you for that. “Know thy reader”. That jumped out from the screen and buried itself into my cortex. Thank you for that. But the biggest thank you comes because of a comment you left for me this morning. It is surprising the effect a simple comment can have on its recipient. I laughed this morning when I read it and had a chuckle later in the day when I recalled it. Today was a long and grueling day made easier, thanks to you.
Cheers.
P.S. If you do figure out how to make it pay, drop us a line would you.
Wow, man, that's very cool to hear. I'm glad I could contribute in some small way to an improved day, that's points towards my karma tab. Pretty cool of you to say. AS for the rest, style guides are just that, guides, don't let them rule you. But, definately think about who you are writing to. That tidbit, for tone, voice, diction, length... everything will help a ton. I first encountered it in my freshman college English class. Been struggling to remember it ever since. Thanks for the kind words and I'll write a hub on it if I ever figure out how to make money in volumes that count. lol.
Hi Shades. Interesting hub, and just goes to show that the English language has more tributaries than the Amazon, and is still a work in progress. I wonder sometimes whether we haven't tried to fit the venerable old lady into a straightjacket, but it doesn't matter too much, because she soon wriggles right out of it. Your comment about knowing your audience is very good advice.
Thanks, Amanda. This is one of my first hubs and it's by far my most Google searched one and I'm pretty pleased with it. And you are right about the English language being a work in progress. I suppose all language is. We're just doing our part to screw it up for generations to come. No sense making it simple for them. LOL. If you like this kind of hub, I just did one on "Bad Rap or Bad Wrap" that goes into the evolution of the term. Check it out if word stuff is interesting to you. And thanks so much for the kind words.
People define us, in part, by how we choose our words. Yours are always chosen wisely. I never went to college, so I've always wondered; Why do you need a degree to be a bachelor? I married young, so I would obviously have failed that course!
I just re-read this comment, and it didn't sound as much like a joke as I had intended. Since it's too late to delete it, I'll just wave my sarcasm sign, and hope you notice it.
Well, it's a fair question. Another follow up to it might be, how many degrees of bachelorhood are there? Do you quantify by conquests as it were?
Actually, the most fun I have with the degree thing is that, you know how when you get a PhD people call you "Doctor" right? Well, I've been telling my wife that when I finally finish my master's degree, it stands to reason that she will have to call me "Master." She seems to be wanting to resist this, so I'm going to have to keep working on her until she sees the perfect logic in my reasoning.
(And yeah, I'd have got it. I have an eye for sarcasm anyway lol.)
Seems to me, that degrees or bachelorhood, and degrees of separation could go hand in hand.
Like book ends. Good thought.
Oh, wait... whose hands do they have to hold?
Dea Shadesbreath,
you have just managed to make it pay. I've clicked both the google ads on this one to check how these 2 universities write the term. You can expect your 5 cents coming through the mail.
thanks for the effort. I am still undecided what to put down for my MBBS / M.B.B,S.
Any suggestions?
Use the periods. It's grammatically correct to use them for abbreviations, and I just checked two style guides and my AP handbook to be sure there isn't some little sneaky secret that lets you off the hook for periods. There isn't. So, go with option number 2.
And, since that's such a good question, I just added it to the hub. Thanks.
:)
Hooray (or hurray or hoorah) for this definitive piece! Would love to see a follow-up on what comes AFTER the degree. As one who fights regularly to de-capitalize majors from accounting to business to math (I write a lot of bios for working professionals) I would love to get your take on the to initial cap or not to initial cap question..
You mean like when they write: "I have a bachelor's degree in Business" or some such? Capitalizing the "B" in business?
'xactly. Only they would capitalize any and all words possible. Example: John Cranedriver is a Project Superintendent at Acme Development, Inc. He graduated from City University with a B.S. (NEVER bachelor's -- but if they did write it out, it would be Bachelor's Degree) in Construction Managment and an minor in Business Accounting. Is it me (excuse me, is it "I") or does interrupting sentences with so many capitals make the sentence feel like you're riding a rollercoaster?
The area of study should not be capitalized unless it is a proper name. So, if the degree is in business or business accounting, it's simply written as: I have a bachelor's degree in business accounting. However, in my own particular case, my degree is in English, which is a proper noun, so I must say, "I have a bachelor's degree in English."
So there you go. Hope that helps.
I even tossed that one up on the list too. Thanks for contributing that great question.
Hi Shadesbreath, I found this to be an interesting piece. :) Since I have 'abandoned' my dental life years ago and along with it even my 'title.' So when somebody would ask me, what were you a graduate of? I discovered I had forgotten what to say? LOL anyhow, I guess mine would be Bachelors of Science in Dentistry or 'I have a bachelor's degree in Dentistry." Did I get that right? :) I enjoyed this one. Thanks.
No "s" on Bachelor of Science for the first one. And the capital "D" on dentistry is not needed in either case.
Hope that helps and glad you stopped by. :)
I keep on forgetting the no "s"...ok I will remember that! Yes this helps! :)
Good. And if you really want to capitalize the "D" in dentistry, you won't get picked on too bad in the first case (Bachelor of Science in Dentistry) as you would in the second. The first example can be construed as a title, in which case an argument can be made for correctness, where the second instance (bachelor's degree in dentistry), to capitalize "dentistry" makes of it a proper noun that it is not.
Thanks for playing our game, as they say. :)
Sue Wheat! Thanx! Who knew (?) we scholars should/could/would end up "less clues" toward style form mysteries as the vitae accrue Bless YOUR literate I.Q.
CJ Anderson B.A. [girl workin' on M.S.]
~:;*-*;:~
You're welcome and thanks, and, mostly, while I have no idea what that little critter is you made at the bottom of your comment, I derived at least 15 seconds of pure amusment contemplating just what it might be. I concluded nothing beyond it has cuteness potential in spades and screams frolickiness in a completely feminine voice.
Frolickiness?
I reserve the right to create whatever word I need for any given situation as required. Why are you criticizing my languagification of the, uh, language when you have Death Knight to level up?!
Have you two been meeting in WoW secretly?
Hah, no. Just figured that's where she vanished to. (Me too a little, but mostly new job now.) And /cheers, Christoph!
Bah...my DK is stuck at level 60. You know how it goes. My lock is now 80...and in constant demand to come and suck the life out of the bad guys (don't you even dare make a comparison). My rogue is closing in on 76 and it's starting to get expensive between the three of them...but I'm trying.
I knew you wouldn't be able to resist checking out the new expansion. How's the new job going?
:P Christoph. Hehehe! Although I wouldn't mind dueling Shade in Wow...it might even be kind of fun. I could check out his frolickiness....
Yeah, I couldn't get into the DK, mines at 59 and probably will be for a long time. lol. Mage and Rogue are 80, preist is 72. New job is good, but I have to wake up hella early, which is going to take some getting used to. LOL @ dueling. Would be fun.
I did atually know about 'bachelor's degree' but got tripped up today with 'master's programs' or 'masters' programs'. So I had to take a break and look it up so I could get my grammar head in gear. Some days the synapses just don't fly the right way in my brain.
Hah, see, that's pretty much the problem I was having when I was driven to write this article. And, while I don't have time to look it up, I'm fairly comfortable saying that it works the same way when modifying "program" too. The noun "program" will become plural or not depending on what is being said, so the "master's" (serving as an adjective) remains the same either way.
Oh my goodness - this is so funny! Heck, I have a Master's Degree in English, and I'm never sure how to write it.
You mean, you have a master's degree in English? ROFL.
See, we're using differenet style guides even as we speak.
Thank you. This bothers me every time I work on my resume. I suspected it was correct to indicate I have a Bachelor of Arts in history, but because of my line of work, I need to indicate I also have an English minor. This all resulted in a stylistic decision based on "know your audience" to write it as Bachelor of Arts in History with an English minor. My audience is prone to over capitalization, but I just can't bring myself to capitalize "minor." I do *only* have a minor in English, so it is nice to see this topic clarified as best as can be expected.
Yeah, I like that AML, "clarified as best as can be expected" is pretty much right on target.
Wow, there are a lot of comments about basically nothing. Way to go!
Twin XL, sometimes humans develop these odd things called "interpersonal relationships," which on the Internet might seem ironic in a way, but try to stay with me here for a second... in which said humans sometimes exchange information that isn't really so much information as social interaction. By saying things that, perhaps, don't seem to say anything at all, those humans are actually saying what is not being said, which includes concepts like, "I like you," or, "You are my friend, I enjoy you, and want you to know it" sort of things.
This can be a difficult concept for some humans to recognize as they are often stodgy, socially inept or possessed of such collosal sour-pussedness that they are incapable of articulating these types of things and, therefore, find themselves with no need to.
I really enjoyed reading this post and the comments. I found this post to be quite helpful in properly writing the abbreviation of my bachelor's credential.
I have a bachelor's degree in mass communication and business. How exactly do you write that with the abbreviations? How would I add it to the end of my name is a better way of asking this question.
I appreciate any suggestions from any one, especially the English grads who have posted on here :)
Regards,
RoTimi Waddy
Hi RoTimi. Thanks for the nice comments. To abbreviate it your credential, you would write: I have a B.S. in mass communication and business.
Generally, a bachelor's degree is not a degree you would place behind your name (nor is a master's really, although some do). You'll see RoTimi Waddy, PH.D. or Shadesbreath Jones, M.D. but not often the bachelor's or master's degrees.
However, you can do it (it's not "wrong" to do so), but generally you don't specify the field of study when you do. So you would just write RoTimi Waddy, B.S. Make sure you use your full name, though. Not Mr. Waddy, B.S. nor even just R. Waddy, B.S. If you include the degree like that, use full, first and last name. Hope this helps.
Nicely explained. This is something that gets students confused a lot. Long time ago, I also wondered whether to write bachelors degree or bachelor's degree. You have explained it very nicely.
Thanks, DW. I only found out how myself after realizing I wasn't sure either. Can't feel bad about what we don't know, can only feel bad about what we know we don't know and yet don't bother to find out.
mumz says:
18 months ago
Very informative article. Nice to see somebody putting their education to good use.