Public Affairs Office
Times & Dates
Times
Lowercase and place periods after a.m. and p.m; do not use :00 for times that fall on the hour:
7 p.m., 10 a.m., noon, midnight.
not:
7 PM (or pm), 10 am, Noon, 12 noon, Midnight, 12 midnight
If you use "from" to indicate a time duration, follow it with "to":
from 3 to 4 p.m., not from 3-4 p.m.
Dates
No comma is needed after the month followed by a year:
March 1997
not:
March, 1997.
Months are spelled out in running text, not abbreviated. Preferred order is month, day, year:
April 18, 1775
not:
18 April 1775
Use commas to set off years and dates:
On January 10, 1998, Portland was covered in ice.
On Saturday, January 10, the rain turned to ice.not:
On January 10, 1998 Portland was covered in ice.
On Saturday, January 10 the rain turned to ice.
Even though we use phrases like "March 16th" or "December 31st" in speech, it's better to use the date without the "th," "rd," or "st" in copy (except when the month is not specified:the semester starts on the 25th).
The seasons and words derived from them (such as springtime) are lowercased:
the fall semester, the spring semester
not:
the Fall semester, the Spring semester
