The Writing of Dates

• 08/07/60 vs 08.07.60 or 080760, etc.
  (Are different expression styles recognizable? Is the date August 7 or July 8?)
• "2008-09-15" is the ISO 8601 standard, esp. in technical fields
• 08 July 1960
• July 8, 1960
• (July the 8th, 1960, etc.)

Periods, Commas and Quotation Marks

• 'The boy kicked the ball.' (GB 'inverted commas')
• "The boy kicked the ball." (US "quotation marks")
  (cf. Neea Paatero's 'Gatsby' analysis for UK/US punctuation differences)

• 'She screamed, "I didn't do it!" and then ran away.' (GB format, quotation within a quotation)
• "She screamed, 'I didn't do it!' and then ran away." (US format,   - - - )

• He said, 'I didn't like what they had for dessert'.
  (FIN/GB variable procedure for periods & commas in quotations, where the period/comma may be either inside or outside closing quotation marks)

• He said, "I didn't like what they had for dessert."
  (US fixed standard, where periods & commas are always inside closing quotation marks)

• Use of the 'Oxford comma' ('serial comma') [cf. cartoon and background]
  (Generally, BE uses fewer commas than AE, although in both variants using the 'Oxford' [University Press] or 'serial' comma [the use of which is more common in AE] usually results in clearer expression)

Punctuation With Business (Formal) vs Social (Informal) Letters

• Dear Mr Smith, (GB)
• Dear Aunt Sally, (GB)

• Dear Mr. Smith: (US)   —   (note also the GB "Mr" vs the US "Mr.")
• To Whom It May Concern: (US)
• Dear Aunt Sally, (US)