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