38 | Numbers

38|Numbers

Unless you are writing in a scientific field or your essay relies on statistics, you’ll generally want to use words (twenty-seven). Figures (27) are most appropriate in contexts where readers are used to seeing them, such as times and dates (11:05 p.m. on March 15).

38aIn general, write out a number that consists of one or two words, and use figures for longer numbers.

Short names of numbers are easily read (ten, six hundred); longer ones take more thought (two thousand four hundred eighty-seven). For numbers of more than a word or two, use figures.

Two hundred fans paid twenty-five dollars apiece for that shirt.

A frog’s tongue has 970,580 taste buds; a human’s has six times as many.

EXCEPTION: For multiples of a million or more, use a figure plus a word.

The earth is 93 million miles from the sun.

image Figures at a Glance

ADDRESSES 4 East 74th Street; also, One Copley Place, 5 Fifth Avenue
DATES May 20, 2007; 450 BCE; also, Fourth of July
DECIMALS 98.6° Fahrenheit; .57 acres
FRACTIONS 31⁄2 years; 13⁄4 miles; half a loaf, three-fourths of voters
PARTS OF volume 2, chapter 5, page 37,
LITERARY WORKS act 1, scene 2 (or act I, scene ii)
PERCENTAGES 25 percent; 99.9 percent; also, 25%, 99.9%
EXACT PRICES $1.99; $200,000; also, $5 million, ten cents, a dollar
SCORES a 114–111 victory; a final score of 5 to 3
STATISTICS men in the 25–30 age group; odds of 5 to 1 (or 5–1 odds); height 5’7”; also, three out of four doctors
TIMES 2:29 p.m.; 10:15 tomorrow morning; also, half past four, three o’clock (always with a number in words)

38bUse figures for most addresses, dates, decimals, fractions, parts of literary works, percentages, exact prices, scores, statistics, and times.

860

Using figures is mainly a matter of convenience. If you think words will be easier for your readers to follow, you can always write out a number.

38cUse words or figures consistently for numbers in the same category throughout a passage.

For more on the plurals of figures (6s, 1960s), see 32i.

Switching between words and figures for numbers can be distracting to readers. Choose whichever form suits like numbers in your passage, and use that form consistently for all numbers in the same category.

Of the 276 representatives who voted, 97 supported a 25 percent raise, while 179 supported a 30 percent raise over five years.

38dWrite out a number that begins a sentence.

When a number starts a sentence, either write it out, move it deeper into the sentence, or reword the opening.

Five percent of the frogs in our aquarium ate sixty-two percent of the flies.

Ten thousand people packed an arena built for 8,550.

EXERCISE 38-1 Using Numbers

Correct any inappropriate uses of numbers in the following sentences. Some sentences may be correct. Example:

image

  1. A program to help save the sea otter transferred more than eighty animals to a new colony over the course of 2 years; however, all but 34 otters swam back home again.

  2. 12 percent or so of the estimated fifteen billion plastic water bottles purchased annually in the United States are recycled.

  3. In act two, scene nine, of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Portia’s 2nd suitor fails to guess which of 3 caskets contains her portrait.

  1. Fourscore means 4 times 20; a fortnight means 2 weeks; and a brace is two of anything.

  2. 50 years ago, traveling from New York City to San Francisco took approximately 15 hours by plane, 50 hours by train, and almost 100 hours by car.

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  3. At 7 o’clock this morning the temperature was already ninety-seven degrees Fahrenheit.