Re: spelled out numbers

Subject: Re: spelled out numbers
From: "Martin, Chuck" <chuckm -at- EVOLVESOFTWARE -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 12:32:31 -0800

On Wednesday, January 28, 1998 12:19 PM, Emily A. Thrush
[SMTP:ETHRUSH -at- MSUVX1 -dot- MEMPHIS -dot- EDU] wrote:
> >From: IN%"chuckm -at- EVOLVESOFTWARE -dot- COM" "Martin, Chuck" 28-JAN-1998
14:05:14.26
> >Subj: spelled-out numbers vs. numerals for numbers < 10 online
> >
> >A question that just occurred to me. I was taught that in most cases
you
> >should use numerals for numbers less than 10. (There are specific
>
> You learned that in freshman comp - it's an academic thing. Numerals
> usually work better in tech writing - for one thing, there's research
> showing that people process numerals faster and more accurately
> than spelled out numbers.
>
Actually, I seem to remember such things in my technical writing classes
too. your comment drove me to the books I have here (I have more at
home). Carolyn Rude's "Technical Editing" notes that the norms differ
between technical and humanities works, however, the only relevant quote
I found was "In documents that are not scientific or technical, however,
you should spell out both the number and the measure if the number is
lower than 10 or possibly lower than 100," relating to using numbers
with units of measure.

The "Microsoft Manual of Style" seems to be somewhat ambiguous as well.

Lyn Dupre's "Bugs in Writing" is less so. While noting that there are no
single rules, she says "It is generally accepted practice in scientific
writing, however, to spell out zero through nine."

"Chicago" spells out lots of rules, but starts with spelling out numbers
from one to ninety nine.

The "Handbook of Technical Writing" says "The general rule is to write
numbers from zero to ten as words and numbers above ten as figures."

Whew. So is it better to flout the "general rule" when writing solely
for online?

--
"You don't look American."
"Everyone looks American, because Americans are from everywhere."

- Doonesbury
Chuck Martin, Technical Writer
Evolve Software | Personal
chuckm -at- evolvesoftware -dot- com | writer -at- best -dot- com
www.evolvesoftware.com | www.writeforyou.com




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