Have you ever wondered whether you should capitalize “university” when referring to The Johns Hopkins University?

The answer is actually very simple. When you are using the name of the university, you call it The Johns Hopkins University. When you are writing about the university, but you don’t have a good reason to use the name, just use lowercase.

Here is how the style guide puts it: lowercase “the university” and “the hospital” as shortened forms of JHU and JHH.

It’s exactly the same rule as you might use to talk about your relatives. You would write about “Aunt Augusta” because you are using the relationship as part of her name.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t. For example, you might say “Augusta is my aunt.”

The university (note the lowercase!) has a really useful style guide that you may want to use if you are unsure about how to write about Johns Hopkins and its entities.

Click here to see the style guide.