[General] Dec. 2011

Is it acceptable in formal writing to write just an abbreviated form of month and then year,
as in "Dec. 2011"?

thanks

Is there a pressing need?

No.

It's more like self-imposed pressing needs.

I was writing an employment reference letter and wondering if there was a proper way to write periods without including date since there is no need to be that specific?

For example, I want to write something like "Dec. 2010 ~ Jun. 2011" but is it acceptable?

If it's in a table or list it may be acceptable,but not in a sentence.

rainous said:

No.

It's more like self-imposed pressing needs.

I was writing an employment reference letter and wondering if there was a proper way to write periods without including date since there is no need to be that specific?

For example, I want to write something like "Dec. 2010 ~ Jun. 2011" but is it acceptable?

Click to expand...

I personally wouldn't have a problem with it, but use a hyphen ( - ) to mean 'to', not a tilde ( ~ ).
Some people associate the tilde with approximation, so your phrase might read "from December 2010 to about June 2011".

Good point. I expect this is something to do with the mathematical symbol for 'is approximately equal to': ≈ (I think, but I'm not a mathematician).

b

BobK said:

Good point. I expect this is something to do with the mathematical symbol for 'is approximately equal to': ≈ (I think, but I'm not a mathematician).

b

Click to expand...

Nor am I, but when I was in med. school, all our professors used it for non-mathematical shorthand to mean "about".
"PR ~ 72" (Pulse rate around 72 beats/min), etc.
"Laceration on L arm ~ 3cm long."

(I don't count guessing approximate measurements as mathematics.)

rainous said:

No.

It's more like self-imposed pressing needs.

I was writing an employment reference letter and wondering if there was a proper way to write periods without including date since there is no need to be that specific?

For example, I want to write something like "Dec. 2010 ~ Jun. 2011" but is it acceptable?

Click to expand...

In any sort of running prose (not a table), I suggest you write December 2010 to June 2011. For an employment reference letter, which is on the formal side of the spectrum, I advise it even more strongly.

Raymott said:

Nor am I, but when I was in med. school, all our professors used it for non-mathematical shorthand to mean "about".
"PR ~ 72" (Pulse rate around 72 beats/min), etc.
"Laceration on L arm ~ 3cm long."

(I don't count guessing approximate measurements as mathematics.)

Click to expand...

Yes, this is the difference. "~" means approximately. "≈" means is approximately equal.

1.99 ≈ 2
~10cm of tape.

birdeen's call said:

Yes, this is the difference. "~" means approximately. "≈" means is approximately equal.

1.99 ≈ 2
~10cm of tape.

Click to expand...

I was guessing at a derivation to explain the 'approximate' use of the tilde (perhaps by people who weren't aware of the background). I didn't know the single-tilde had that technical meaning (which presumably explains the double-tilde symbol). ;(But, in terms of derivation, one of them must have come first - unless they were simultaneously and/or independently coined (all of which suppositions strike me as unlikely ;-))

b

What I wrote is just the most common distinction. There are certainly many deviations from this in literature. There is also an abundance of other tilde-derived symbols in mathematics, like ≅, ≅ or ≃. (I'm not really sure whether the first two signs are different. I thought they were when I copied them, but they look the same now. The first was supposed to have three straight bars and the second two. The last one has one straight bar.)