SoP Grammar: Capital Letters?

[Tritonetelephone]

This has been driving me crazy, and I keep finding conflicting advice. What's the verdict here?...

Do you capitalize the name of the field you're applying to, if it's not a foreign language? (i.e. "I would like a PhD in Sociology.")

Do you capitalize the names of subfields? (i.e. "I would like to specialize in the Sociology of Knowledge.")

Do you capitalize job titles? (i.e. "I have been employed as a Research Assistant." or "I was the Student Activities Officer of my university's SGA.")

I have been doing yes, no, and no for the most part.

[grex]

Honestly, I don't think it matters either way.

[Dreams]

I capitalize the first two, but not always the third.

[Minnesotan]

I capitalize the first two, but not always the third.

Same here. I don't think you'll lose points either way, though.

[Halcyon22]

I actually stressed over the same thing in my SOPs!

Anyways, what I was told:

You only capitalize a discipline if it is a language (like you said). So generically saying you want a PhD in sociology, you wouldn't capitalize that. However, you would capitalize if you were talking about the 'Department of Sociology at X University', since it is a proper name. You wouldn't capitalize if you were saying the 'sociology department at X University'. Same goes for subfields since they are also names of disciplines. This advice was pretty much spot on when I looked at departmental web-pages and saw how they handled capitalizing the names of the discipline in various contexts. If still in doubt, I would just recommend checking departmental pages in your area to see what is most common.

As for the job part, I'm not sure. I wrote that I was a "Graduate Teaching Assistant", although I don't think that was necessarily correct. But to echo the others, I don't really think it really is going to hurt you either way. But if you want to be technically correct, that is what I was told by my advisor who is a big perfectionist when it comes to grammar. (fyi.. I'm in the sciences, English majors: feel free to correct me on this!)

Hope that helps some.. good luck!

[coho]

that's my memory from high school English too.

[Tritonetelephone]

Thanks all! I didn't think it would matter much also... until I started to think about just how many SoP's these committees are reading at once. If mine is read immediately after one that used different rules, I want to make sure mine used the "correct" rules. But it sounds like we're all on the same page, more or less. I won't worry.

[linden]

Trintonetelephone:

I think, but I could be wrong, that titles should only be capitalized when they come right before the name. (e.g. "Research Assistant Tritonetelephone was the best student ever", but "Tritonetelephone, a research assistant, was the best student ever.")

http://www.grammarbookonline.com/blog/u ... ob-titles/

But, of course, the danger (and what makes me nervous) is that the SOP will be read by someone who thinks that all titles should be capitalized regardless of placement. Good luck!

Linden

[misterpat]

I read a book on Personal Statements by Douglas Asher, or Dennis Asher, or some other D name.

Anyway, you do not capitalize the discipline.