University of Southern California

Names and Titles and Degrees

• Do not use Dr. before a faculty, staff or administrator’s name unless the person is a medical professional.
• Do not use Ph.D. or another degree designation after a faculty, staff or administrator’s name unless it is in a list of faculty, university administrators, etc.
• Do not hyphenate compound titles.
  - Vice president not vice-president

Composition titles (see AP Stylebook for more information)

• Put quotation marks around book titles, computer game titles, play titles, poem titles, album and song titles, radio and television program titles, and the titles of lectures, speeches and works of art but not the Bible, almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias and software titles.

Initials

• Use periods and spaces between C. and L. in President C. L. Max Nikias.
• Use periods but do not use spaces when a person uses initials instead of a first name in all other cases.
  - Example: H.L. Mencken