Do I capitalize child life?
This is one of the most common questions I get when reviewing applications. I also think it is a question that many people are embarrassed to ask, thinking they should know the answer. The truth is, I’ve had this conversation and debate with so many people in the field!
I decided to deep dive into this to figure out the correct way to write child life.
Short answer:
- child life (all lower case)
- Certified Child Life Specialist (all uppercase)
- child life specialist (all lower case)
I felt that I needed some sort of guide or reference point for this and I choose to write based on some documents that I found through the ACLP.
This document, Writing for the ACLP, outlines how you must write in order to submit a formal writing piece for the bulletin. It identifies several common terms within our profession and how they should be written. I figured if it’s good enough to submit a formal writing piece to the ACLP, it’s good enough for applications.
This also then led me to explore the correct way to write out your degree. Here’s what I found….
- bachelor’s degree (all lower case)
- Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development and Family Science (all uppercase)
Essentially, if you are just writing bachelor’s, master’s, etc. you do not need to capitalize it. But, if you are writing out the entire degree name then it should be capitalized!
The bottom line, these small details are only one part of your application and should not “make or break” your application score, especially considering that each person has their own idea of how some of these terms should be written!
But, if you want a guide, like I did, here it is!
