DTS Naming Conventions

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Dallas Theological Seminary publications follow the Chicago Manual of Style in almost all instances. Below are some of the common spelling and grammatical rules specific to the seminary.

Seminary Name

Always use the full seminary name—Dallas Theological Seminary—in print, not the shortened form “Dallas Seminary” often used verbally.

  • incorrect: Dallas Seminary (except when speaking)
  • correct: Dallas Theological Seminary
  • correct: DTS (when the full name is visible as well)

Seminary URLs

  • Always include www. before the main DTS website, but never for subdomains
    • incorrect: dts.edu
    • correct: www.dts.edu
    • incorrect: www.library.dts.edu
    • correct: library.dts.edu
  • Never include more than one slash when advertising a URL on www.dts.edu **Note that this is only for advertising. We cannot shorten URLs just for convenience sake.
    • incorrect: www.dts.edu/admissions/degrees
    • correct: www.dts.edu/degrees

Locations & Campuses

  • For accreditation purposes, Dallas, Houston, DC, and Atlanta are the only “campuses,” and all other locations are “regional locations” or "extension centers."
  • For DTS publications, we use the term “location” as a generic term for any place DTS offers courses. More specifically, a location with resident staff or faculty is a “campus,” a location with regular course offerings is a “regional location,” and a location with temporary course offerings is a “mobile site.” *Check the website for an accurate list of locations.
    • Campuses: Dallas, Houston, Washington, DC (note: we no longer use periods as in D.C.), Atlanta
    • Extension Centers: Austin, San Antonio, Guatemala, Hong Kong
    • Regional Locations: Europe, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, College Station, Phoenix, Northwest Arkansas, Brazil, Israel, and Cuba
  • Use campus, extension, and regional site appropriately for each location
    • incorrect: the Washington, DC site
    • correct: the Washington, DC  campus
    • incorrect: the Austin campus
    • correct: the Austin extension
    • incorrect: the New York extension
    • correct: the New York mobile site
  • When referring to a location, use the initials DTS with a hyphen (-) and the city name.
    • incorrect: DTS Houston
    • incorrect: DTS/Houston
    • correct: DTS-Houston

Degree Programs

As of 2015, DTS no longer uses any punctuation (including periods, slashes, parentheses) in degree abbreviations. For our two general Master of Arts programs (MABEL and MACS) we continue to format the full name of the degree with parenthesis rather than with “in”.

Professional Ministry Degrees

Master of Theology – ThM
Master of Arts in Apologetics and Evangelism – MAAE
Master of Arts in Counseling – MAC
Master of Arts in Chaplaincy and Ministry Care – MACP
Master of Arts in Christian Education – MACE
Master of Arts in Christian Leadership – MACL
Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies – MAIS
Master of Arts in Media Arts and Worship – MAMW

General Degrees

Master of Arts in Biblical Exegesis and Linguistics – MABEL
Master of Arts in Christian Studies – MACS
Master of Arts – MA
Master of Biblical and Theological Studies – MBTS
Certificate of Graduate Studies – CGS

Doctoral Programs

Doctor of Philosophy – PhD
Doctor of Ministry – DMin
Doctor of Educational Ministry – DEdMin
Master of Sacred Theology – STM

Additional DTS Degree Notes

  • When referring to a person, use the correct degree abbreviation and either a space and the 2-digit year without an apostrophe or a comma with the full year and semi-colons to separate degrees.
    • incorrect: John Doe (MAC ’09)
    • incorrect: John Doe (MA/C 09)
    • correct: John Doe (MAC 2009)
    • correct: John Doe (ThM 2009; PhD 2015)
  • In copy, use the full name above
    • incorrect: master’s degree in Counseling
    • incorrect: master’s in Counseling
    • correct: MA in Counseling
    • correct: Master of Arts in Counseling
Style Guide