Capitalisation
The following rules govern the use of capital letters, and cover many specific examples.
The general rule
Do not use a capital letter unless it is absolutely required.
Please do ensure, however, that all proper names are capitalised.
Specific words
Chancellor
Always capitalise when referring to the Chancellor of the University.
Sir Andrew Witty became the seventh Chancellor of The University of Nottingham on 1 Janurary 2013.
Clearing
Always capitalise when referring to Clearing and Adjustment.
Find out more about Clearing and Adjustment opportunities on our website.
Department, division, faculty and school
Only capitalise department, division, faculty or school when it is used as part of the title of that unit, not when referring to it without using its full name.
Academic titles (professor, fellow, etc)
Only capitalise fellow, professor and other academic titles when used as part of an academic's formal title, not when referring to them in general.
John Scrub is the Fellow of Alliterative Chronology. The other fellows are extremely jealous of his remarkable hair.
Halls of residence
Don't capitalise halls of residence unless using the title of a hall.
If you choose catered accomodation you will live in a hall of residence on campus; Florence Boot Hall has its own cafe bar.
Names with prefixes
For names with prefixes follow the preference of the individual, if known. If not, use lower case for the prefix only.
Term and semester
Term and semester should never be capitalised even when referring to a specific semester) unless at the beginning of a sentence).
Many students will have exams in semester two.
Small caps
Do not use small caps (upper-case characters set at the same height and weight as surrounding lower-case letters or text figures), even for BC and AD.
The Battle of Hastings took place in 1066AD.
The University of Nottingham and university
Only capitalise university when used as part of the title of a university or when referring to The University of Nottingham (both when "University" is used as a noun and when it is used as an adjective).
Our University attracts students from accross the UK. Many students choose to study with us rather than at the many other universities around the country.
Always capitalise the "T", the "U" and the "N".
The University of Nottingham is a member of the Russell Group.
Titles
See names and titles for details.
Books, films, songs, games etc
Capitalise the first word of the title and all words within the title except articles (a/an/the), prepositions (to/on/for etc) and conjunctions (but/and/or etc). See highlighting/emphasising text for details on italicising and punctuation for quotation mark advice.
Subtitles
Capitalise subtitles only if the original title is printed or displayed that way.
Headlines, webpage headings, journal articles, chapter titles and lecture titles
If it is the title of the document in question, capitalise the first word of the title and all words within the title except articles, prepositions and conjunctions.
If it is a sub-heading or not the title of the document, only capitalise the first word, any proper nouns and the first word following a full stop/question mark/exclamation mark.
Course and module titles
Always capitalise course and module titles, but do not capitalise subject areas or topics not used as part of a course or module title.
Return to The University of Nottingham Style Guide