Re: What is right

["Huber, Mike" <mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM>]

"3 8 hour days" looks too much like "38 hour days."
I don't like putting numbers together like that, even written out-
confuses people.
Even "three eight-hour days" or "three 8-hour days" is awkward.

You are trying to say two different things at once:
1) It took three days.
2) A day is defined as eight hours.

Why do you have to define the length of a day at this particular point?
Do you use multiple definitions in the context?

I'd go for
"... three days (8 hour) ..." or
"... three work days ..." or even
"... three days. A lab day is 8 hours."
if it's necessary to specify the length of the day at all.
I like the last one best - two ideas, two sentences.

Mike Huber
mike -dot- huber -at- software -dot- rockwell -dot- com

>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Kim Keegan [SMTP:keegan -at- explorers -dot- com]
>Sent:  Wednesday, July 16, 1997 2:48 PM
>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject:       Re: What is right
>
>Feeman Kevin SC2275 asked about:
>
>>      "three eight-hour days" vs. "3 8 hour days"
>
>What your SME suggests (3 8 hour days) just plain looks bad!
>
>Rubens (Science and Technical Writing - A Manual of Style) says to spell
>out numbers if ten or less (7.9), to use numerals to report all time
>values (7.7), and to put a hyphen between numbers and words that form a
>unit modifier (7.13).
>
>So, by these rules, shouldn't it be "three 8-hour days"?
>
>--
>Kim Keegan | Information Developer
>ISI Data Services / Intrepid Technology
>keegan -at- explorers -dot- com or keegan -at- isidata-intrepid -dot- com
>http://www2.explorers.com/~keegan
>
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