This blog, at its core, is about helping people become better writers, and helping startups write better stuff. Most of the time, the advice is broad (because that’s more fun to write about), but the smaller stuff is just as, if not more, important. So now, into the minutia of… wait for it…: writing the date.
The trend these days, as it is on wordpress, is to write Month Day, Year (or F j, Y); like July 31, 2008. That’s cool. And if you like it, it works. But I actually think Day Month Year is better (or j F Y). For example, 31 July 2008. I think it’s better because it breaks up numbers, and therefore, makes it easier to read. That’s big; I always think the best copy scans easily - the reader gets the idea without having to work for it. They get to the end of the page (or the header, in this case), and know what they just read, without having to piece it back together. I think 31 July 2008 does that better.
Plus, as an added bonus, 31 July 2008 cuts out a comma. You shouldn’t have to put a comma in the date. If you’re writing conversationally (as I do here), there’ll be plenty, even too many, of those later on. Conserve them while you can. Write the date, and write it simply.
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Astute readers will notice that directly below this post, I have the date written as August 1, 2008. Seems stupid, given the post (of course). Truth is, I’m having trouble fixing it in wordpress. I’ve changed the date format in my settings panel, but don’t see it reflected on the actual blog. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!
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