Use of Courtesy Titles and Honorifics in Professional Writing

Use Of Courtesy Titles And Honorifics In Professional Writing

The use of honorifics (Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms.) and styles (HRH, His Holiness, etc.) differs greatly among publications in both journalism and academia. The differences are based on tradition, practical concerns (such as space), and cultural norms. There is a continuum among publications between using no honorifics at all, using some honorifics but not styles, and using all honorifics, including styles. In certain cases honorifics and styles may be used according to some other pattern, or selectively only for certain persons. Note that this discussion deals only with the use in the English language; others, for example German, are very different.

Read more about Use Of Courtesy Titles And Honorifics In Professional Writing:  Titles, Honorifics, and Styles, Comparison of Publications, Styles Used Sometimes, Styles Not Used

Famous quotes containing the words courtesy, titles, professional and/or writing:

    “I find nothing healthful or exalting in the smooth conventions of society. I do not like the close air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a prisoner, though treated with all this courtesy and luxury. I pay a destructive tax in my conformity.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Lear. Dost thou call me fool, boy?
    Fool. All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “The belief that there are final and immutable answers, and that the professional expert has them, is one that mothers and professionals tend to reinforce in each other. They both have a need to believe it. They both seem to agree, too, that if the professional’s prescription doesn’t work it is probably because of the mother’s inadequacy.”
    —Elaine Heffner (20th century)

    “The human head is bigger than the globe. It conceives itself as containing more. It can think and rethink itself and ourselves from any desired point outside the gravitational pull of the earth. It starts by writing one thing and later reads itself as something else. The human head is monstrous.”
    —Günther Grass (b.1927)