The use of "th" when listing a date

[rachel.fearnside@allianz.]

Hi - I remember when I was at school in England (a very long time ago) having explained the use of "th" when writing dates and the need not to use "of" as well.

As part of a team correcting business letter writing errors (in Australia), I need to explain to users why they should write:

Tuesday 15th August

and not

Tuesday the 15th of August or Tuesday 15th of August

Whilst users are receptive to following "the rules", I cannot find them on the intranet to refer them to.

Please help!

thanks,
rachel

[DavyBCN]

Hi - I remember when I was at school in England (a very long time ago) having explained the use of "th" when writing dates and the need not to use "of" as well.
As part of a team correcting business letter writing errors (in Australia), I need to explain to users why they should write:
Tuesday 15th August
and not
Tuesday the 15th of August or Tuesday 15th of August
Whilst users are receptive to following "the rules", I cannot find them on the intranet to refer them to.
Please help!
thanks,
rachel

I'm afraid I do not agree with telling users they must use Tuesday 15th August. I think you are going to see a lot of replies here which "champion" the many different ways of writing the date, whether in business or other correspondence. For example, in almost 30 years in business I never wrote the day (Tuesday). In non-business correspondence I would often include the day, but would then write it as Tuesday, 15th of August.

There are many conventions, regional differences and personal preferences in this area, which is perhaps why there are no rules - just suggestions of alternatives and comments on their suitability for different situations and purposes.