What is it with companies, especially in the insurance market, and capital letters? Here is a taste from a website from a well-known Lloyd’s insurer:
We have a number of underwriting teams… each specialising in different categories – e.g., Property, Marine, Cargo, Casualty, Energy, Terrorism, Accident & Health, and Contingency.
Here is another, anonymised, from a press release published on a Lloyd’s broker’s web site:
John Doe has been appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO), reporting to Sarah Noname, President, CEO, and Board Chair. Doe joined Brokercorp in 2001 and has served as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) since 2013.
Now try this for size:
We have a number of underwriting teams… each specialising in different categories – e.g., property, marine, cargo, casualty, energy, terrorism, accident & health, and contingency.
Or:
John Doe has been appointed chief operating officer (COO), reporting to Sarah Noname, president, CEO, and board chair. Doe joined Brokercorp in 2001 and has served as chief financial officer (CFO) since 2013.
Is any meaning lost? No. Does it look nicer to the reader? Yes. Is it grammatically correct? Yes.
I am convinced that the corporate obsession with capital letters arises from deep insecurity and delusions of grandeur. I can imagine the explanation: “Job titles in capital letters make me look more important. Business divisions identified with capital letters emphasise their critical role in our business.”
Nonsense.
The Plain English Campaign is emphatic in its guidance on the use of capital letters. In summary, capital letters should only be used at the beginning of sentences, and for proper nouns. (The list is longer but for the purposes of this rant those two are the most important) Those include people’s names, organisation names, place names, some significant days (New Year’s Eve, Mother’s Day), specific titles and ranks (Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard), months and days of the week, religions and religious holidays, the points of the compass and specific regions, the names of languages and nationalities, and trade names.
You will note that job titles and business divisions do not get a mention.
It is also worth noting that whenever the mainstream insurance media, and the national media, write about these things, capital letters are never used. Media ‘style guides’ are clear about this. Yet although the PR team may be berated for not using capital letters, not a squeak is heard when the media change the spelling to the correct form.
As with many linguistic, stylistic and cultural issues, our good friends in the US like to do things differently with capital letters, including their media, and I long ago gave up the fight.
At Haggie Partners we like to get these things right, and we will always fight the corner of correct grammar. As a former journalist, it is in my blood, and I am mocked in the office for being Captain Grammar. But I would rather be Captain Grammar than Damian Beeley, Partner, and Media Relations Specialist at Haggie Partners.
Do please comment if you agree, or disagree, and have a look at the Plain English Campaign website.