Dates, Times, Numbers

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Academic Years 

• first-year student 
• second-year student 
• junior 
• senior 
  • we use first-year and second-year rather than freshman and sophomore, then junior and senior thereafter, to avoid awkward things like fifth-year and sixth-year student.

Dates

• Spell out dates and include the day of the week and year for informational purposes.
  • Wednesday, March 27, 2019; not March 27th, 2019 or 3/27/19
• When not preceded by between or from, date ranges use an en dash with no spaces. 
  • March 27–28, 2019; not between March 27–28 or from March 27–28

Graduation Years

• Graduation years can be abbreviated to the last two digits preceded by an apostrophe
• No punctuation
  • '92 '09
  • MS '92 PhD '09
  • BS English Literature '78 MS Rhetoric and Technical Communication '92
  • Jack Johnson '11 '15
  • Exception: early 1900s and later 1800s alumni, use full year: 1887, 1915

Time

• a.m./p.m. is correct in text/narrative. AM/PM is acceptable in design.
  • 9 p.m., Saturday, April 28, 2012
• noon and midnight are preferable to 12 p.m. and 12 a.m.
• When not preceded by between or from, time ranges use an en dash with no spaces.
  • 8–9 a.m., 10 a.m.–2 p.m., or 3–5 p.m.; not between 8–9 a.m. or from 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
• 5th is correct. Don't use superscripts unless for scientific or technical accuracy

Numbers

• Zero to nine are always spelled out except for in recipes and with staff positions; 10 and up are written as numerals except at the start of a sentence or for headlines
• Spell out a figure when beginning a sentence even though numerals are used elsewhere in the text
• Numbers of more than three figures are pointed off with commas, except SAT scores.
  • 1,259 women
  • $4,700,900
  • 1220 SAT
• "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" (abbreviate number)

Credit Hours

• Use numerals to refer to credit hours
  • 6 credits

Percent, Percentage

• Use the word percent instead of the symbol %
• A numeral is used before the word percent, unless it comes at the beginning of a sentence
• Percent refers to an exact number
  • Thirty percent of their wages went to taxes.
  • The power play is running at 25 percent.
• Percentage is used when there is no exact number
  • The percentage of their salaries that went to taxes was significant.

Room Numbers

• Put the building name first before room numbers
  • Administration Building G20
  • Fisher Hall 135

Telephone Numbers

• Use hyphens in telephone numbers. Do not include parentheses for area codes
  • 1-888-688-1885
  • 906-487-2319