Dates

My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places. – Winnie the Pooh

• The standard date format in Australian and UK English is Day Date Month, e.g. 30 October 2010 (not 30^th); unless the document is a standard tender form that has ‘Signed this [30^th] day of [month, year]’.
• Use names of months rather than numbers, as it confuses between American and British English. Local styling should be adopted.
• Pairs of dates are shortened using an en dash to the shortest pronounceable form: 1998-9 but 2010-12, 1998-2002
• The solidus (forward slash) distinguishes between a financial year, 2003/4, and a span of calendar years, 2003–4 (en rule).
• Years are expressed in figures, but avoid starting a sentence with a figure.
• Use s without an apostrophe to indicate decades or centuries: 1990s 1900s.
• Decades may be spelt out, in lowercase: the seventies.
• If the decade is identified by its century, it’s usual practice to use: the 1970s.