When it comes to writing dates and years, consistency and clarity are key. This guide will help you navigate Bellevue College’s updated editorial standards for handling dates, ensuring your writing is both professional and easy to understand.
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Dates and Years: A Quick and Clear Guide
When it comes to writing dates and years, consistency and clarity are key. This guide will help you navigate Bellevue College’s updated editorial standards for handling dates, ensuring your writing is both professional and easy to understand.
Months: When to Spell Out and When to Abbreviate
If you’re referring to a month on its own or with just the year, always spell it out:
- “January is a busy time for students.”
- “The event took place in August 2023.”
However, when you’re using a specific date, abbreviate months that are six or more letters long. This includes Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. If space allows, it’s better to spell out the entire month for accessibility:
- “The workshop is scheduled for Jan. 15, 2024.”
- “The deadline is April 14, 2021.”
Commas: Where They Belong
When writing a specific date that includes the year, use a comma before and after the year:
- “The meeting on Dec. 31, 2023, will wrap up the year.”
But if you’re only mentioning the month and year, no commas are needed:
- “We met in December 2015.”
Academic and Fiscal Years
For academic and fiscal years, use a hyphen with no spaces and abbreviate the second year:
- “The 2023-24 academic year begins in the fall.”
- “Budget planning for 2024-25 is already underway.”
Avoid writing out the full years or adding spaces around the hyphen:
- “2022-23,” not “2022–2023” or “2022 – 23.”
Keep It Simple: Dates Without “th” or “st”
When writing dates, there’s no need to add “st,” “nd,” “rd,” or “th” after the number. Just state the date:
- “The event is on May 3,” not “May 3rd.”
- “April 15 is the tax filing deadline.”
Decades: Straightforward and Simple
When writing about decades, don’t use an apostrophe before the “s.” If you’re abbreviating the decade, use an apostrophe to indicate missing numerals:
- “The 1950s were a time of change.”
- “Fashion trends of the ’80s are making a comeback.”
By following these guidelines, you’ll ensure your dates and years are consistently formatted, making your writing clear and professional.
About the Bellevue College Style Guide
Bellevue College has recently updated its editorial standards, ensuring consistency and clarity in all written communications across campus. These guidelines are essential for maintaining a unified voice, making our communications easier to understand, and reflecting professionalism in all publications, whether it’s a campus-wide announcement, a department newsletter, or social media content.
Following a consistent style ensures that our readers—students, faculty, staff, and the wider community—receive clear, accessible information. Bellevue College primarily follows the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, with some customizations to meet our specific needs.
Through this blog series, we’ll dive into various components of the style guide, helping writers and editors across campus understand how to apply these standards effectively in their work.
The complete style guide can be found on the Bellevue College website.
Last Updated October 30, 2024