Recently, I received a few corrections on my research article. One of them was that the ordinal indicators like 'th', 'rd', etc., should be inline with the number and not as a superscript. For example, 25th is correct whereas 25th is incorrect. Is this a universally accepted convention?
Learn English – Should ordinal indicators be inline
ordinal-numbers
Related Solutions
Major edit: while I still personally like (k+1)th, @Mitch has found confirmation for (k+1)st in a math handbook, to which I must concur. Therefore, (k+1)st appears to be the most correct to mathematicians. Barring any future pertinent revelations, I would suggest using (k+1)st.
Kay plus first seems worse to me because one visualizes k + 1st instead of (k+1)th. If only for this reason, I would say "(k+1)th". Adding "orthographic consistency" to the mix pretty much decides the issue for me.
I would say that the only reason why it might not sound natural is because we don't say "(k+1)th" in ordinary life, hence oneth is not a usual word. However, we often use the word first, and therefore it sounds more natural. This does not mean it is the best choice.
As to which is used more often, doing the googling ("(k+1)st" -grade -grades and "(k+1)th") turns up evidence for the inference that each is used about as much as the other. (Wikipedia uses (k+1)th, however, for what it's worth, while our friends at Math.SE seem mainly to support (k+1)st.)
As for spoken usage, any would be acceptable, but all are clunky. Try to avoid such terms.
As for usage difference based on context - there does not seem to be a usage/meaning difference between the two.
Either way, spoken or written, I recommend strongly that you reword your sentence so that facing the issue is unnecessary if possible.
The usual answer is to consult the style guide of your organisation.
There is an online tool you can use to help with title capitalisation, but it only deals with the capitalisation of the first letter of each word. There are three style guides to choose from, including AP and Chicago Manual of Style. In any case (no pun intended), if you type in "11th", the "th" remains in lower case.
As this doesn't truly help your situation where everything (else) is capitalised, the question is what kind of a thing "11th" really is. Richard Nordquist at About Education considers them to be numerals followed by abbreviations.
If we consider "11th" to really be the same as "eleven" with "th" tacked on, and the "eleven" portion replaced by the numeral "11", Frankenstein though that might be, then what we are left with is really just the number spelt out, sort of.
Looking further afield, a number of articles on style close with something along the lines of whatever you choose, be consistent:
- If you are writing titles (or headings) for a school paper, it is recommended to choose one style for capitalizing titles and be consistent throughout. - Rules for Capitalization in Titles of Articles
- When it gets confusing, just remember these golden rules of copyediting: (1) Whatever you choose, be consistent; (2) but beware of having a tin ear; and (3) it's all arbitrary, so go for clarity and sustainability. - Titles: Quote Marks, Italics, Underlining, or Naked?
- If you're juggling a bunch of numbers within the same paragraph or series of paragraphs, be flexible with the number style if doing so will improve clarity and comprehension. - Chicago Manual of Style, as quoted in "Numbers: Spell Out or Use Numerals? (Number Style 101)"
So if the rest of your spelt-out words are in capitals, by a consistency argument, so should the trailing "TH".
Best Answer
No, neither choice is a universally accepted convention, and a reviewer is more likely to know the chosen convention for the journal or academic setting in which this discussion is occurring. You might get the style sheet for the journal (it probably being available as a pdf file) and do a search for 'superscript'.
It has always annoyed me that Microsoft Word has so many style conventions that are imposed by default. When I get a new installation I need to go through and rip out about 50% of their "helpful" style auto-substitutions.