Don't use courtesy titles, such as Mr., Mrs., Miss. or Ms.
Capitalize formal titles – those that are almost an integral part of a person's identity or current role – when they directly precede the name. For example: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mayor John Tory, Queen Elizabeth, President Morgan Hoffarth, Immediate Past-President Angela Cooper Brathwaite.
Lowercase most formal titles standing alone. For example: the prime minister, the president, the Liberal leader.
A title set off from a name by commas is lowercased. For example: The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, will represent Canadians at the conference.
Lowercase occupational titles and descriptions. Titles of officials of companies, unions, political organizations and the like are also lowercased. For example: general manager Art Simpson, registered nurse Margaret Wilson or senior policy analyst Lynn Anne Mulrooney.
Lowercase formal titles when preceded by former, acting and so on. For example: former mayor Rob Ford, acting health minister Kim Shen, past-president Vanessa Burkoski, prime minister-designate Mary Brown, the one-time president Gerald Ford.
Lowercase the common-noun elements of names in plural uses. For example: prime ministers Marie Leclair and James Dunn, and premiers Jean Martineau and Gertrude Germain. But retain capitalization for the plurals of abbreviations: Lt.-Govs. Michael O’Hara and Robert Bernard, Drs. (Revs.,Profs.,Sgts.) Fraser Dougals and Berthe Lucas.
Front-loading – piling nouns in front of a name – is hard on the reader. Instead, use of, the and a, and set off long titles with commas. For example: 'The president of Groovy Records of Canada, Sheryl Jones, attended the news conference' instead of 'Groovy Records of Canada president Sheryl Jones attended the news conference.'
Please refer to RNAO's glossary to learn more.
