where such gures are seen as errors. Newspapers and some other space-constrained publications favor
gures because they are shorter, more visible, and more easily skimmed. Almost all styles encourage the use of one however, instead of or along with I which can be confused with the letter “el”: Please send me 1 (one) copy of the album.”
Whatever
style you adopt, be sure to be consistent within any
sentence or
paragraph, using all gures or all spelled-out numbers so that readers do not have to shift expectations. RIGHT I saw four birds and one hundred and six insects.”
WRONG: There are ninety-six chapters and 102 verses.”
Note that spelled-out cardinal numbers include
hyphens for all numbers over twenty and below one hundred that are compounds of two or more numbers:
“Twenty-one bears and ninety-six cougars gathered by the pond Ordinals are hyphenated only when they modify
a noun That is twenty rst; it is the twenty- rst time you have used that example Longer ordinal compounds are also hyphenated in their last element only when used as
adjectives with a
noun present “I
see the one hundred twenty-first flag it is one hundred twenty-first in line.”
When numbers begin sentences, they should always be spelled out Nineteen sixty- ve was a strange year Although some newspapers and other publications concerned
with space violate this rule, most styles observe it since initial gures in a sentence are hard to place—are they subjects,
list numbers,
dates, note numbers, or something else Spelled-out numbers
reduce this ambiguity and clarify writing.
Another way to clarify such a sentence is to revise it, moving the number from the initial position What a strange year 1965 was See
revision.Figures are mandatory
in certain circumstances, however dates (November 23,
1963”), addresses (“32 Barrow St, Apt. B, New York, NY 10014-4927”), phone numbers (“212-699-9999”), and times (“6
A.M.,” but note that spelled-out
numbers are ne without AM or “P.M.” or with “o’clock”: It was four in the afternoon “I
had an appointment for four o’clock this afternoon. Figures are also required with larger or very exact amounts of money (“$6.82 million “£3,475”), decimals and
fractions (“6.9387,” “¾?”), percentages (“36.9%,” “42 percent, sports or competitive scores (Bears win 21-10!” The pupil scored 97 on the test, and parts of plays and books (chapter 14,” Act 3,” scene 2”).
