Common Era - Conventions in Style Guides

Conventions in Style Guides

The abbreviation BCE, just as with BC, always follows the year number. Unlike AD, which traditionally precedes the year number, CE always follows the year number (if context requires that it be written at all). Thus, the current year is written as 2012 in both notations (or, if further clarity is needed, as 2012 CE, or as AD 2012), and the year that Socrates died is represented as 399 BCE (the same year that is represented by 399 BC in the BC/AD notation). The abbreviations are sometimes written with small capital letters, or with full stops (e.g., "BCE" or "C.E."). Style guides for academic texts on religion generally prefer BCE/CE to BC/AD.

The terms "Common Era", "Anno Domini", "Before the Common Era" and "Before Christ" in contemporary English can be applied to dates that rely on either the Julian calendar or the Gregorian calendar. Modern dates are understood in the Western world to be in the Gregorian calendar, but for older dates writers should specify the calendar used. Dates in the Gregorian calendar in the Western world have always used the era designated in English as Anno Domini or Common Era.