Titles and names

Academic titles

The full titles of academics with ranks have an initial capital letter. Use sentence case when referring to position titles and roles generically.

In general, use academic appointment titles (such as Professor, Associate Professor, Research Fellow) rather than ‘Dr’. (‘Doctor’ is an honorary title conferred on those who’ve completed a PhD, or doctorate. Occasionally, an academic may prefer to use their honorary title ‘Dr’ rather than their academic rank.)

For an adjunct professor, use the title ‘Professor’.

For plural instances, use title case.

Write

The Vice-Chancellor congratulated Associate Professor Gladstone on her appointment as the centre’s inaugural director.

The Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health, Associate Professor Faye Gladstone, greeted the Vice-Chancellor at Friday’s launch.

Professor Ng has been an adjunct professor at the School of Public Health since 2011.

The research was supervised jointly by Professors Gladstone and Ng.

Initials

Don’t insert full stops and spaces between initials.

Write

Dr William LP Sanders

Don’t write

Dr William L.P. Sanders

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns create a direct, active voice and tone. They help to create a personal relationship with the reader.

Use you, you’ll and your wherever possible to directly engage the reader.

When referring to Curtin or one of our areas, use third person in the first instance and the personal pronoun we and determiner our on subsequent mentions.

Examples

  • At Curtin, you’ll study a course that’s grounded in the real world. Our practical facilities offer you the best in hands-on learning.
  • Curtin’s School of Nursing has an excellent work placement program. We can generally allocate you to your preferred location.

Postnominals

Postnominals are the shortened forms for academic awards and civil and military honours. Write the highest honour first.

The order is:

  1. postnominals for honours and awards
  2. Queen’s Counsel (QC) or Senior Counsel (SC) or Justice of the Peace (JP)
  3. university degrees and diplomas
  4. membership of professional associations
  5. membership of parliament

Don’t use

  • full stops or spaces within postnominals
  • commas before or between post-nominals.