Degrees (punctuation)

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The punctuation of the abbreviated titles of the degrees awarded by universities is not clear - it is one of the areas of free choice governed by House Rules. The abbreviation for 'Bachelor of Arts' (or artium baccalaureus) is the letters B and A, usually but not always in that order. The possible ways of writing this are:

  • B. A. (full stops and a space). This is the traditional form.
  • B.A. (with full stops, and no space between the letters). This is said to be commoner in American English.
  • BA (with no full stops and no spaces). This appears to be increasingly the most common form in British usage.
The logical continuation of this sequence (B A - with a space but no full stops) does not appear. What is true of the B.A. should be applied to the M.A. (mutatis mutandis).

Note that where the abbreviation of one of the words in the title has more than one letter, the commonest practice is to write the first letter in upper case and all subsequent letters in lower case: PhD (or Ph.D.); B.Mus.; B.Sc. and so on.

The best advice for any writer is to

    • find out the House Rules that apply; or, if that is not possible,
      • use the format used by the person you are writing about, or
      • use the format preferred by the relevant institution; or
      • decide which of the above you want to follow; and
    • be meticulously consistent in applying it.