Commas and dates
 

I found two places advertising more than twice what I had been told I could earn in my currently-chosen line of work. One said that they would not consider anyone for an interview unless they had a license and three other documents--basically, everything they needed to start working immediately. The other one did not give many details, so I sent an e-mail, and was asked to submit my résumé.

I really do not like writing résumés, but for 133% more money I am motivated.

However, I did not get very far, so I e-mailed my sisters and mother, and after weeks, one just got back to me. It seems like her largest issue is how I write dates.

As I understand it, in the English-speaking world, we write 1,234.56, in much of the rest of the world, they write 1.234.56, and in Candy Crush they write 1 234
56.

However, nobody seems to use commas when writing years. I thought that I was taught to only use it for two thousand or more, but when I have tried to find rules, I have not been able to find anything.

Searching for "2,015" yields billions of results, each of them having "2015," without a comma, even though I had it in quotes.

Am I remembering wrong?

Was my teacher mistaken?

Does anyone even know how to verify this? :)

Thanks so much! Please enjoy your day!

I use commas for thousands, whatever the number.

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We don't use commas in years, because nobody pays attention to the first two numbers.

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It's easier to remember numbers broken down into groups... thus, 2015 is broken into 20 15... and read by most as '15. You will only ever have to read those last two numbers.

Doing it as 2 015 doesn't make sense, because then you have an extra large group '015... ain't nobody got time... literally... for three number years.

I've seen international people on here writing currency directly opposite as Americans i.e.: 1.234,56. For some reason we Americans switched things, I've asked Mrs. Spif about this and she has confirmed it's not just on the internet. She's worked for a company based out of the UK and is now working for a French company and says that she has seen the period and comma switched all the time.

Candy Crush isn't a reference for proper writing rules.

There are books that outline all these rules, MLA handbook comes to mind first but there are others for other accepted writing styles as well. I believe the MLA is the most accepted style.

Niky is correct, no commas are used when writing out a year. When writing a date it should be August 12, 2015. Unless you do the European format 12 August 2015. August 12, 2015 is way I've seen it written most often. Typing August 12, 2,015 looks way too busy, and August 12 2,015 looks even more screwy.

HTH, Good luck getting a new job. 133% raise sure would be nice :)

The US way of listing the date is arbitrary, and inferior to most any other way of listing it.

If I were supreme ruler, dates would always be listed yyyy/mm/dd so that the most significant value is listed first and progresses to least significant, just like normal numbers work. Everything would be automatically sorted by date when following this rule.

Month/day/year is stupid.

I've never seen anyone list a year with a comma, and whoever taught you to do it that way lead you astray.

Stop using your sisters and mother as an excuse to delay writing your resume. Just do it, and attach a reward for successfully completing and submitting it. Don't partake in that reward until it's been completed.

I think you'd use commas in amounts but not years.

In currency it makes it easier to read, for example (for smaller amounts I consider it optional). You can see how much £2000 is at a glance, but £12,000 benefits from the comma, as does $2,000,000. Quantity or weight usually has larger units you can use in preference to larger numbers.

Calendar years are only ever four digits (for the foreseeable future at least) and context makes it unnecessary and superfluous to add a comma. That's what I think anyway.

What is it good for?! :)

I have read that the Chicago Style Guide is the most extensive, but they charge to use it. I do not know about the others, but since I can hardly find anything on it, I would prefer to look in the largest haystack, although since everything that I see on style guides thus far shows years without numbers, I suppose that I have my answer.

When I joined the Army, I was told that I would always write dates 12 Aug 2015 and that is how I have done it ever since. Of course, I was then told a couple of different ways that I would always do it. On occasion, I need to use Month-Day-Group or something, which is specifically designed to be confusing.

I have been told to make my résumé reflect the job listing--if it lists ten qualifications, say that you have as many as you actually possess. I found a sample résumé, but aside from one job, it was absolutely minimalistic, perhaps barren, but eventually I found one job listing with at least fifteen qualifications, so I included them. I am just trying to fill out the rest of it.

My sister said that she excelled at embellishment and my other sister and our mom said that I needed to send it to all of them, but especially that one. I applied for my license and am waiting for it in the mail. I will start applying and submitting my résumé once I have my license and I still expect companies to tell me to wait until I have the other documents. I cannot apply for them until I have my license.

As for a reward, how about a paycheck? :) Or, wait until am paid to reward myself? :)

Like pay off my credit card...

This depends on what you see as significant, though. To me, and I think to most people, the month is most significant. It gives you a good idea of what the weather is going to be like, whether it's time to plant or harvest (or get out ski or beach gear :-)). Day is next most significant, as it tells you how far you are into any given month. Year, though? For most purposes, the year just doesn't matter, as one is pretty much like another.

As for sorting, 1) How often do you need to sort dates? 2) Anyone who can't easily do an mm/dd/yy sort really should find another line of work :-)

We call it American Exceptionalism. We do things wrong just because nobody else does them that way and it confuses them. Because apple pie and stuff.

12 Aug 2015... 12 Aug 2015? Who the hell trained you? You don't write out the entire year unless you write out the entire month: It's 12 Aug 15 or 12 August 2015. Pick one!

Seriously?

Sorting is nontrivial to programmers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_algorithm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

Naming your files like: 2015-08-14 random document.txt makes it easy to arrange them.