Answered By: Katie Hutchison
Last Updated: Aug 18, 2016     Views: 25397

Dates in text should have a number rather than an ordinal.

April 6 (not April 6th)

Punctuate common forms of dates as follows:

April 1967 (no comma)
April 6, 1967 (comma after day of month; insert comma after year as well in running text)
1968–1972 (en dash)
May–June 1967 (en dash)
1965– (en dash for open-ended date)
fiscal year 1958/59 (eliminate century in the second year if it is the same)
school year 2004/05 (same as fiscal year)
association year 2004/05 (same as fiscal year)
1970s (no apostrophe)
the ’70s (apostrophe before year)

For months, use the following forms in references in all publications; do not follow with a period.

Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

In MLA “Employment Opportunities,” use month/date/year format with numerals.

Use numerals, unless the year is at the beginning of a sentence. When referring to a decade, never use an apostrophe before the “s.”

1980s

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