Among alphabet-based languages and cultures, the capitalization of names and position titles is a universal norm of almost overriding concern. So, when a Filipino Forum member of long standing asked me recently about this matter, I decided not to try to reinvent the wheel but to reply with an essay that I wrote on exactly that subject over eight years ago. It was in response to a Tanzania-based Forum member's account of a very traumatic personal experience about the use of position titles:

'The other day I had a fierce argument with my Australian professor, who apparently felt demeaned that I wrote her title as 'dean of faculty' rather than as 'Dean of Faculty' in my letter asking for permission to attend the wedding ceremony of a relative in a distant town. She refused to approve the letter unless I modified the phrase. But confident that I hadn't committed any grammar mistake, I wasn't comfortable about the change she wanted. I challenged her to show me one grammar rule demanding that all job titles be capitalized. Reddened and shaking with rage, she crumpled the letter and tossed it in a dustbin. She forced me out of her office, shouting 'I am not available to disputant students.'