4.06 Institutions

(a) Capitalize the official names of organized churches (religious denominations, sects, orders) and their adherents, universities, school boards, schools, courts of law, clubs, corporations, unions, alliances, associations, political parties, etc.:

• Canadian Airlines International
• Lisgar Collegiate Institute
• the Canadian Medical Association
• the First Baptist Church
• the International Court of Justice
• the New Democratic Party
• the Opposition (official)
• the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board
• the Quebec Superior Court
• the Rotary Club
• the Supreme Court of Canada
• the University of Manitoba

The official capitalization is that used by the institution itself.

(b) The names of administrative subdivisions of these institutions are also capitalized:

• the Department of Political Science
• the Toronto Synod

(c) A generic noun used as a short form of a title is often capitalized, especially in corporate writing:

• the Institute
• the Board
• the Party

(d) Capitalize short forms that use only the specifying element:

• This afternoon, Concordia and Western will play in the final.

(e) Do not capitalize generic short forms used in a non-specific sense, preceded by a possessive, demonstrative or other type of adjective, or used adjectivally or in an adjectival form:

• The university is our town’s major employer.
• Our family attended a Baptist church regularly.
• She tries to attend all board meetings.
• Only strict adherence to the party line was tolerated.
• Every board of education in the province has adjourned for the season.

(f) But, if the short form refers to a specific, unique institution, it retains the upper case when used as a noun or adjectivally:

• The Scouts held a rally over the weekend.
• A city-wide Red Cross blood drive replenished the hospital’s supply.

(g) Documents intended for an internal readership often capitalize terms that would be lower-cased in writings of a general nature:

• He worked for the Company for almost forty years.
• The document was forwarded to the Regional Office.

(h) In second and subsequent references, short forms may be treated generically and lower-cased:

• He was invited to address the Second Annual Conference on Biotechnology but declined because the conference was not sufficiently broad in scope.
• She applied for a grant under the External Scholars Program, but only graduate students were eligible under the program.

(i) Do not capitalize the plural of common nouns, even when the full titles of the bodies concerned are given:

• He held degrees from the universities of Saskatchewan and Toronto.
• Candidates for the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties attended the rally.

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