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academic degrees

Avoid the use of academic degrees unless it's absolutely necessary to establish credentials. If so, use the following abbreviations with periods included after a name and set them off with commas: Ph.D., B.A., M.A., and LL.D. Use them only on first reference. Also, use an apostrophe in bachelor's degree, a master's, etc., but there is no possessive in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science, for example.

When possible, avoid using Dr. before the names of individuals who hold doctoral degrees, such as Ph.D. Instead, when necessary or appropriate, write out the name of the person’s degree.

Katerina Melnyk, who has a doctorate in computational science, was principal investigator.

Maxwell Garcia, Ph.D., is joining the IPO directorate.

The academic subject of the degree should be lowercase, except for proper nouns.

She has a Master of Science in theoretical physics.

He completed a bachelor's degree in English literature at Harvard University.

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Last Updated Dec. 9, 2024