Dates, Seasons & Time
General Guidelines
Check the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook for general questions.
Specifics
Dates
Numbers
Always use figures (1, 12, 31) without st, nd, rd, or th in dates.
- Yes: Student Services offices will be open on Saturday, August 22.
- No: Student Services offices will be open on Saturday, August 22nd.
Months
Spell out the month in specific dates.
- Yes: September 18, 2021
- Yes: August 3 was one of the hottest days of the summer.
- No: Sept. 18, 2022
- No: Aug. 3 was one of the hottest days of the summer.
Spell out the month when you refer to the month and the year.
- May 2021
Punctuation
Do not add a comma between a month and a year.
- Yes: The new computer lab is scheduled to open September 2024.
- No: The new computer lab is scheduled to open September, 2024.
Use commas to set off the year following a month and day.
- Yes: On August 1, 2021, TCC celebrated its 50-Year anniversary.
- No: On August 1, 2021 TCC celebrated its 50-Year anniversary.
Days
Spell out days of the week in sentences.
- Yes: Classes begin this coming Monday.
- No: Classes begin this coming Mon.
Use these abbreviations only when in a table:
- Mon
- Tue
- Wed
- Thu
- Fri
- Sat
- Sun
Months
Spell out all months when used alone or with only a year.
- Yes: January 2021 weather gave us many ice days at home!
- No: We hope to launch the new program in Jan. 2021.
- Yes: Labor Day is the first Monday in September.
- No: The fourth Thursday in Nov. is Thanksgiving.
Spell out the month when used with a specific day.
- Yes: This year's Chancellor's Breakfast will be August 25.
- No: This year's Chancellor's Breakfast will be Aug. 25.
Seasons
Use lower case for general references to seasons.
- Yes: The start of the fall semester will be here before we know it.
- No: The end of the Fall semester seems far away.
Capitalize the season when referring to a specific semester.
- Yes: The Spring 2022 schedules are no longer accurate.
- No: The fall 2022 exam schedules will be posted soon.
Time
Use figures except for noon and midnight.
- Yes: If my exam starts at noon, when will I eat lunch?
- Yes: Midnight is too late for you to register for Fall 2021 classes.
- Yes: Registration ends at 11:59 p.m.
- No: Does the luncheon start at 12 p.m.?
Use lowercase a.m. for morning hours.
Use lowercase p.m. for evening hours.
- Yes: The Northeast Campus Biology Lab opens at 8:30 a.m.
- No: The Northwest Campus Spanish Lab closes at 5PM during the week.
- No: The South Campus Math Emporium opens at 9 A.M. on Saturday.
- No: The Southeast Campus Science Learning Center opens at 9 am.
- No: The Trinity River Café will close at 2pm on Tuesday.
Avoid redundancies.
- Yes: The 5th Annual Student Development Institute starts at 7:30 a.m.
- No: The performance will start at 6:30 p.m. in the evening.
Write hours on the hour without zeros.
- Yes: This week's meeting of the TCC Board of Trustees will start at 6 p.m.
- No: The Registrar's Office opens at 8:00 a.m.
Time Spans
See also Formatting: Hours of Operation
Separate hours in time spans with an en dash and without surrounding spaces.
- Yes: 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
- Yes: 8–11 a.m.
- No: 8 – 11
- No: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
When a time span is all in the morning or all in the afternoon, do not repeat the a.m. or p.m.
- Yes: 8:30–10 a.m.
- Yes: 1–4:55 p.m.
- No: 6 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
When a time span includes both a morning and an evening time, include both the a.m. and the p.m.
- Yes: The training session will be 11:30 a.m.–1:20 p.m. on Thursday.
- No: The fitness center will be open 9–1 p.m. on Saturdays this fall.
Years
Use a figure when you start a sentence with a year.
- Yes: 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of TCC South.
Indicate an academic year with the appropriate 2-year span.
Format: (4-digit year)en dash(4-digit year)
- Yes: The 2021–2022 academic year will begin in 2 weeks.
- Yes: Professor Biber won one of the 2021–2022 Supporting Student Success Grants.
- No: Have you checked the 2021–22 catalog to verify your degree requirements?
Refer to a span of calendar years with words instead of an en dash.
Format: from (4-digit year 1) to (4-digit year 2)
- Yes: Joe B. Rushing was Chancellor of TCC from 1965 to 1988.
- No: Joe B. Rushing was Chancellor of TCC 1965–1988.
Updated January 20, 2023