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The Street City Church

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PO Box 6218, Marion Square,
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You are here > Home / Styleguide / Degrees

Degrees

It is acceptable to spell out the degree or to abbreviate it, depending on the context.

When describing and spelling out a degree, use lower case and apostrophes.

  • There are many baccalaureate degrees.
  • He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics. She is working towards a master’s degree.
  • She has a bachelor of arts degree in English.
  • The Faculty of Graduate Studies conferred 97 master’s degrees in the Spring convocation.

When abbreviating a degree, omit periods and punctuation marks.

  • BA MA PhD LLB BMus LLD LLM DJur DLitt BJ BSc MES MSW

Within the body of a text, details of a degree may be written out as follows.

  • Dale Smith earned her BA (Honours) in history.
  • Judy Shreiber graduated with a master’s degree last year.

Within a graduate profile, shorten as much as possible, including the year of graduation.

  • Dale Smith (BA Hons. `79) now works in Guam as a consultant.
  • July Shreiber (MA `98) is now pursuing doctoral work at Harvard University.

When writing for the Class Notes column in Profiles, alumni are organized in sections according to their year of graduation.

  • Under the section heading 1979: Dale Smith (BA Hons. Massey).
  • Under the section heading 1998: Judy Shreiber (MA Grad. Studies).

When using articles with degrees, use the article appropriate when pronouncing the abbreviation.

  • an MA in political science (not a MA)
  • an MSc in theoretical physics (not a MSc)
  • a BA in philosophy