Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/96

 23d August, 1764, on another. The use of 2nd or 3rd, common in England, is not to be commended; 2d or 3d is a more acceptable abbreviation.

In formal writing a statement of time should be made in words. Phrases like two o'clock, half -past three, or ten minutes to four are more pleasingly expressed by words than by 2 o'clock, 3.30, or 3.50.

Hours are usually separated from minutes by a period, as in 11.30. Sometimes the period is inverted, as in 11*30, and sometimes a colon is unwisely used, as in 11:30. The forms o'clk and o'cl'k are tolerated in narrow column work only.

In rapid writing figures are often used for time when followed by the abbreviations a.m. or p.m. When a.m. and p.m. are not in the copy, which reads, at seven o'clock in the morning, or at twelve o'clock noon, words should be used instead of figures.

In ordinary description, but not in a legal document, the expression of money in complex or broken amounts, as $21.76 or 23 7s. 3d., should be in figures. Even amounts of money, like five dollars or three shillings, may be in words, but not if figures are used in the same paragraph for other amounts. In ordinary composition, whole numbers with vulgar fractions often compel the use of figures.