English Language & Usage Asked on June 20, 2021
A great many style guides address the question of whether or not to separate the month and year with a comma in phrases of the type “January[,] 2018″—and yet, to my surprise, a search of English Language & Usage for the terms “month year comma” yields only one question that seems to focus on precisely this point: Is there always a comma before and after a year in a sentence?
Unfortunately, that question was closed as duplicate back in 2014, even though the prior question that it supposedly duplicates (How to use AP Style commas after dates) does not ask about “month[,] date” constructions, and even though none of the answers posted in response to that question address the issue either.
But the “Is there always a comma before and after a year in a sentence?” question doesn’t show any research, which would probably lead to its being closed again for that reason if it were reopened as not being a true duplicate—so rather than try to rehabilitate it, I ask the question afresh (and in my own words) here:
In instances where only a month and a year appear as date indicators—such as “January[,] 2018″—is it more common in print publishing (that is, in ink-and-paper books and magazines, whose publishers tend to enforce in-house or third-party style guidelines) to include a comma after the month or to omit it? Are the relevant style guides evenly divided on this issue, or do they preponderantly favor one or the other option?
Bryan Garner, Garner's Modern American Usage, second edition (2003) has a useful entry on this matter:
DATES. ... B. Month and Year. February 2003 is better than February of 2003. Stylebooks have long agreed that no comma should appear between the month and the year. Among the mountains of evidence that might be amassed are these sources: The Washington Post Deskbook on Style 127 (1978); Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations 30 (5th ed. 1987); Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 63 (4th ed., 1994); Scientific Style and Format 227 (6th ed., 1994); Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 70 (1999); Allan M. Siegel & William G. Connolly, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage 101 (1999); Webster's New World English Grammar Handbook 161 (2001); The Chicago Manual of Style 253 (15th ed., 2003).
It is therefore strange to encounter an article in The New Yorker, one of our best-edited journals, in which January, 2000 and March, 2000 appear on the first page, and then five similar references appear throughout the piece. (See Scott Turow, "To Kill or Not to Kill," New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2003, at 40–47.) This seems anomalous: almost every professional editor would immediately delete the superfluous commas.
Garner might also have mentioned The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (2002):
When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with commas. When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas.
EXAMPLES: January 1972 was a cold month. ...
and Words into Type, third edition (1974):
When only the month and the year are given, commas are unnecessary.
[Example:] He began writing in May 1971 and finished in April 1972.
and The Oxford Guide to Style (2002):
7.10.1 Order [in Dates] Dates should be shown in the order day, month, year, without internal punctuation, as 2 November 1993. A named day preceding a data is separated by a comma: Tuesday, 2 November 1993. There is no comma between month and year: in June 1831.
On the other hand, a quick check of the December 11, 2017 issue of The New Yorker finds the magazine still hewing to the practice of including a comma in "month year" phrases. For instance, Jon Lee Anderson, "Accelerating Revolution,"uses it six times:
The battle, fought by Bolívar's partisan's and Spanish royalists in June, 1821, was the crucial victory ... In February, 1992, Chávez launched a coup attempt ... In December, 1993, Maduro went with a group of young comrades ... In legislative elections in December, 2015, the opposition trounced the P.S.U.V., ... In November, 2016, Maduro said, ... He was alluding to an executive order that Obama had signed in March, 2015 ...
Conclusion
As with all issues involving punctuation style, the first question a writer should ask in, "What style guidelines am I obliged to satisfy?" If the answer is "None," the writer can decide whether to follow preponderant publishing-house usage or to follow personal preference (if the two do not coincide). And in the case of "month[,] year" punctuation, the preponderance of usage clearly supports the no-comma option.
Answered by Sven Yargs on June 20, 2021
The Elements of Style 2007 edition by Strunk and White (E.B. White wrote for The New Yorker) shows the following:
October to January, 1952 ; July 6, 2017 ; Monday, November 7, 1888 ; and 25 December 1985
He recommends the last example. I believe the 4th edition shows the same comma usage.
Answered by saw on June 20, 2021
FWIW, I ended up here after viewing a half dozen other sites - results of a google search on this topic (one was EduBirdie Writing platform). They virtually all agreed that a comma should be used if the day is included (February 3, 2020) but not if only month and year are used (February 2020). I don't recall any of them mentioning using a comma after the year. I would assume you would only use it if the sentence called for one. In other words, if a comma would be indicated had you only used '2020' (or 'February'): 'In February 2020, as in January, there was no snowfall.' 'February 2020 marks the first month of the Chinese year of the rat.'
Answered by Nicole C on June 20, 2021
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