The right way to write dates, times, names and addresses

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

11 February 2007

John Onyango has two questions; first, “What is the correct way to write the date? Some people write month-date-year and others date-month-year”. I would say that the latter is better because it is more logical – it starts from the small and progresses to the large. For example, to day is the fourth day of the month of February in the year 2007.

If we wanted to add the time, we would have to start with the minutes then seconds then the date. For example, the meeting will start at 10 minutes past 9 o’clock in the morning on 5th February 2007. Clearly, this progresses consistently for the small to the large time-scale.

Even though the time is written as “9:10am”, the correct way to read it is to start the minutes, followed by the hours. Compare that to the way we read money – sh100 in NOT “shillings one hundred”, but “one hundred shillings”!

Date and time are not the only things that follow this logical progression. Addresses also have this characteristic: they go from the specific to the general. In Kenya, we use box numbers and everyone knows that you start with the box then end with the town.

But when the Postal Corporation introduced postcodes, things got confused. Some people put the code at after the town and before the town). Which is correct? We can find out by following the logical progression: you are sending a letter to an individual who uses a box at a certain post office (identified by the postcode) in a particular town. Thus the code should come between the box number and the name of the town.

However, the five digits of the postcode identify the postal region, the town and the post office. Thus with one quick glance, the sorting clerk should be able to tell the destination of a letter. For this reason, it is better to place the postcode at the end of the address…I think.

Onyango’s second question is: “Why do institutions reverse the order of people’s names? My college knows me as Ouma Onyango John instead of John Onyango Ouma”. Well, I think this is a punctuation mistake that has gone on undetected for a long time.

The idea is to write the surname first, followed by the other names in the correct order. But when this is done, a comma needs be put after the surname thus: Ouma, John Onyango.

Unfortunately, many people omit this punctuation thereby creating the confusion. But still, one more thing needs clarification: If on the day you were born you were given the name Onyango, and then some time later (may be days, months, or, even, years) you were baptized John, does the baptism name become your first name or your second name?