[stylist] Using titles to refer to people

Thu Apr 2 14:00:46 UTC 2009

I would agree with you on this one.
I understand that a person who earned the title of Dr. has also earned the 
right to be called so.  Yet to constantly use it sounds like putting someone 
up on a pedestal.  Mr. and the like would suffice most of the time.
Barbara

If wisdom's ways you wisely seek, five things observe with care:  of whom 
you speak, to whom you speak, and how and when and where.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "John Lee Clark" <johnlee at clarktouch.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 10:40 PM
To: "'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Using titles to refer to people

> Angela:
>
> I don't know if I am reading too much into it.  I don't know hearing 
> culture
> as far as conversational speech is concerned--do you all call those with
> Ph.Ds Dr.?
>
> But I know a lot about what gets printed in publications and what certain
> things signify.  Iin articles, you do not refer people with Ph.Ds Dr. at
> all, unless it's a news article that quotes a medical doctor or a 
> scientist.
> But the rest of them, you just don't call them Dr.  In the event the 
> person
> IS a M.D. but the story is about fishing, and this M.D. won the regional
> angling contest, nothing to do with his medical practice, you don't call 
> him
> Dr.
>
> In the rare case that a publication has a strict and archaic policy of
> calling everyone by a title first, e.g. Mr. Ms. Mrs. And Dr., then, sure 
> you
> do use the title, but it'[s only because everyone else is titled too.
>
> But common usage dictates that you don't use Dr.
>
> Ii've read a lot of publications, for research, going back hundreds of
> years.  NAACP's old Clarion Call used every opportunity to use Dr. until 
> the
> late twenties or so, and after that it was dropped.  You read their organ,
> you won't see Dr. all over the place, even if a lot of the people 
> mentioned
> do have Ph.Ds.  The Deaf community took a while longer to get it out of 
> its
> system, but it did.
>
> I get my first issue of the Braille Monitor, I found so many Dr.s that it
> just smacked of a serious inferiority complex problem and it felt so
> pretensious to me, so immature.
>
> Don't get me wrong, I admire the accomplishments of the people mentioned.
> But to be honest with you, all of those people will look much better, far
> more credible, and speak more powerfully without the silly old-fashioned 
> Dr.
> next to their names in print.  I would have been more impressed by them
> without the title, because my attention would be trought more directly to
> actual accomplishments and the actual merit of their thoughts and ideas.
>
> There are many articles by linguists, PR experts, and the like that 
> strongly
> advise against using this title.  Feel gree to Google on this!
>
> John
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Angela fowler
> Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 7:46 PM
> To: 'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'
> Subject: [stylist] Using titles to refer to people
>
> Most people who have PHDs are referred to as Doctor. I think you're 
> reading
> way too much into it.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of John Lee Clark
> Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 1:02 PM
> To: 'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Heroes of the blind community
>
> Hey, all:
>
> I notice NFB's tendency to take pains to refer to people with doctorates 
> as
> Dr.  Am I to read into this a kind of inferiority complex and if you have 
> a
> doctorate you make sure it is known and touted?
>
> If so, Ii recommend scrapping this altogether.  You may think it builds
> credibility, but the fact you mention Dr. at all suggests it is SPECIAL 
> for
> a blind person.  But it shouldn't be considered special, but only a matter
> of course--of course you've got a whole colony of blind doctors!  Even if
> you don't have that many, it's good to be nonchalant about it.
>
> But I can sympathize.  The Deaf community used to make a big deal of the
> title Dr. but that was back in the 1930s.  Nowadays, Deaf Ph.Ds are common
> as dirt.
>
> But I make this suggestion only from the perspective of language
> manipulation.  Understatements are better than overstatements.
>
> John
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of LoriStay at aol.com
> Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 8:16 AM
> To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Heroes of the blind community
>
> Start with the leaders:   Louis Braille, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, Dr. Kenneth
> Jernigan, and many other leaders from NFB.
> Lori
> In a message dated 3/31/09 11:59:04 PM, jbron at optonline.net writes:
>
>
>>
>> >> Who are the biggest legendary figures or heroes of the blind 
>> >> community?
>> >>
>>
>
>
>
>
> **************
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