Or­di­nals are num­bers that ex­press po­si­tion in a se­ries. By de­fault, your word proces­sor will con­vert or­di­nals into superscripts.

Su­per­scripted or­di­nals have two prob­lems. First, or­di­nals turn up most of­ten in ci­ta­tions. The Blue­book and other ci­ta­tion au­thor­i­ties for­bid su­per­scripted or­di­nals (e.g., Blue­book rule 6.2(b)(i) (20th ed. 2015)). Sec­ond, su­per­scripted or­di­nals are tiny and hard to read.

The best prac­tice is to avoid su­per­scripted or­di­nals. To do this, you have to ad­just your word proces­sor’s de­fault behavior.