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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/7690
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Bear in mind that a compact numerical date format like 01/02/2013 uses a different convention in the US than in Europe. In the US it's interpreted as month/day/year, while in Europe it's day/month/year. So if you're writing a document that might be read in both hemispheres, I'd avoid the compact form. If it's only one or the other, less of an issue.

A form like "November 2 2012", with no comma between the day and the year, is very uncommon, probably because it's a little hard to read. Depending on the font and the reader's eyesight, the space might be lost.

Since about 1990 I always put a four-digit year to avoid any ambiguity. If space is really tight, a two-digit year is unlikely to be ambiguous if you're talking about recent events. For a resume, if you say you worked at Foobar Corporation from '08 to '11, I think we could safely assume that you mean 2008 to 2011 and not 1908 to 1911, unless you are a very, very old man. But if you were writing in some larger context and you said that Foobar Corporation was founded in '08, it might not be at all clear whether you mean 2008, 1908, or for that matter 1508.

Personally, when I'm writing for an international audience, I generally use either "Nov 2, 2013" or "2 Nov 2013", i.e. use an abbreviation of the month name, a four-digit year, and if putting the day after the month, separate it from the year with a comma. Both forms are unambiguous but still reasonably compact. When I'm writing strictly for the US, I usually put 11/02/2013.

I heartily agree with Neil Fein that whatever you do, be consistent.

Original score: 5