One of the biggest conundrums throughout my career has been how, when, where and WHO to capitalize. Everyone is not always on the same page with the proper style for official news release copy as well as less official and formal documents like letters, memos, and other office communications.
So, I – as the journalist by degree and public relations pro of lo, these many years – always consult the Bible of writing: the AP Stylebook. Insert millennial smiley-face here.
Headlines
Headlines tend to write themselves, so not as big an issue. Just use title case for headlines and subheads. You capitalize the first word, the last word and all major words in the header. Do not capitalize articles, such as “a, an, the” and so on. Do not capitalize conjunctions like “for, or, nor, and, but” etc. Do not capitalize prepositions that are three or fewer letters unless they’re the first or the last word of the header. An example: “General Electric Announces New Technology at Annual Conference and Appoints New Director of Sales”
Company and Product Names
Respect corporate style, even if the representation does not follow standard capitalization. Common modern examples are “iPhone” and “eBay.” And of course, follow a company’s protocol if that organization represents itself in all caps – like VISA, NASA, IKEA.
Job Titles
Here’s where it gets tricky, not necessarily with clear AP Stylebook direction and best practice, but with company egos. I can’t tell you how many news releases over the course of my career have been edited to be incorrect once they process through the corporate approval process. It seems many people in the C-suite just must have their complete titles capitalized.
However, AP Style directs capitalizing formal titles only when they appear immediately before a name; lowercase them when they follow a name or are used alone.
Correct example #1: “XYZ Company President Joe Smith said….” Incorrect example #2: “Joe Smith, XYZ Company President, said…”
The incorrect #2 example immediately above can be remedied by rearranging the words to mirror #1.
Here’s another example. Correct: “Joe Smith, president of XYZ Company, will preside over the annual meeting.” Also correct: “XYZ Company President Joe Smith will preside over the annual meeting.”
In my experience, people in the C-suite usually like to see all mentions of titles – president, director, manager – represented with capitals. In my humble opinion, it’s better to write around any offending AP Style inaccuracies from the first draft and avoid any friction.
Another tactic is to just defer to the person paying the bills. At the end of the day, it’s not the biggest deal ever if AP Style is not followed down to every dotted i and crossed t. Essentially, PR pros need to pick their battles and find their sweet spot with everyone in the approval process chain.
Datelines
News releases should always contain a dateline. And the name of the city should always be in all capital letters. ATLANTA, NEW YORK, CHICAGO. Early last year, we posted a helpful blog with AP Style tips for using state names; at the end of that blog, we address datelines a bit more.