Dates and Times
Proper formatting for dates, times, and temporal references.
Dates and Times
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Date Formatting
Dates should be written in the form "14th February 2006".
- No internal punctuation is necessary
- Unless the day of the week is included, in which case the day is followed by a comma: "Tuesday, 14th February 2006"
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Abbreviated Years
Abbreviated years need an apostrophe to indicate the missing numbers:
- Example: "I was born in the '90s"
- This is to distinguish dates from age brackets, e.g. "She was in her 60s"
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Time Periods
When referring to a period of time, use the word "to" rather than a dash:
- Correct: "from 1837 to 1901"
- Incorrect: "from 1837–1901"
- Also, use 'and' with 'between': "between 1837 and 2006"
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Times of Day
When referring to times of day, please use the format:
- 11:25, 3:30pm, 6:45am etc.
- Using a colon not a full stop
- If "o'clock" is included in their speech, this should be transcribed as "I'm going to bed at 10 o'clock"
- Please don't mix time styles when in close vicinity to one another
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Examples
Dates:
- 25th December 2023
- Monday, 1st January 2024
- Born in the '80s (not 80's for decades)
- She's in her 60s (age bracket)
Times:
- 9:15am
- 2:30pm
- 11 o'clock
Periods:
- From 1990 to 1995
- Between 2020 and 2023