LEO: Literacy Education Online Using Numbers in Writing

When you refer to a number in writing, you have to decide whether to use a figure or to spell it out as a word. In scientific and technical writing, figures predominate; in magazines and books of general interest, words predominate although figures are also used. This page offers guidelines for non-technical writing.

When do I spell out a number in my writing?

When do I use a numeral in my writing?

How do I use numbers in

• addresses?

• dates?

• exact times of day?

• exact measurements?

• exact amounts of money?

• decimals and fractions?

• percentages, scores, or statistics?

• volume, chapter, and page numbers?

• act, scene, and line numbers?

Spell out a number when

• Spell out a number when the number begins a sentence.
  Five hundred employees were laid off at Stanley Corporation.

  Note: You can rearrange the sentence if spelling out the number would require three or more words.

  Incorrect: 829 people (or fifty-eight percent) who responded to the survey reported that they held jobs in fields outside of their college majors.

  Correct: Of those who responded to the survey, 829 people (or fifty-eight percent) reported that they held jobs in fields outside of their college majors.

• Spell out a number when the number is written in one or two words (except as noted on the back of this handout).
  The correct procedure requires twelve painstaking steps.

• Hyphenate a number written as two words if it is under one hundred.
  There are twenty-two students in my class.

• Use a hyphen to separate the numerator from the denominator in written fractions.
  Two-thirds of the class chose the correct answer.

• Form the plural of numbers by adding "s" or -"ies."
  In the sixties, there were many hippies roaming the countryside.

  Hundreds of geese flocked to the lake before heading south.

Use a number for

• A number that requires more than two words.
  The population of Butterfield is 634.

• Addresses
  525 Elwell Avenue

• Dates
  June 30, 1969

• Exact times of day
  11:11 a.m.

• Exact measurements followed by symbols or abbreviations
  55 m.p.h.

• Exact amounts of money
  $110.79

• Decimals and fractions
  2.53/5

• Percentages, scores, or statistics
  38%score of 10-1

• Volume, chapter, and page numbers
  Vol. I, Chapter 12, page 87

• Act, scene, and line numbers
  Act III, Scene 2, lines 23-27

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  © 2000 The Write Place
  

  The print handout was revised and then redesigned for the Web by Thomas Tate for the Write Place, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, and may be copied for educational purposes only. If you copy this document, please include our copyright notice and the name of the writer; if you revise it, please add your name to the list of writers.

  Last update: 2 June 2000

  URL: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/numbers.html

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