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Writing Numbers in Formal English

Rules

(based on the Publication Manual of the APA)

Go to exercise sentences.

  1. Numbers as Figures

    1. all numbers 10 and above

      • 10 cm wide

      • 25 years old

      • 35 ns intervals

    2. All numbers below 10 that are grouped in comparison to numbers 10 and above

      • 3 and 13 processors respectively

      • 5 of 15 people surveyed

      • the 1st and 14th items in the list

      • the 2nd of 20 responses

    3. numbers immediately before a unit of measure

      • a 5-sec. wait

      • a 2.54 cm long piece of tape

      • 24 MHz

      • a 32-bit RISC core

    4. Numbers that represent statistical or mathematical functions or formulas

      • divided by 6

      • 5% faster

      • a ratio of 32:1

      • multiplied by 8

    5. Numbers that represent time, dates, ages, sizes, scores, money, and points on a scale

      • in about 6 years

      • 2 days ago

      • at 12 noon

      • $5

      • 6-year-old children

    6. Numbers that represent a place in a series

      • year 7 of an 8-year project

      • room 9

      • Figure 2 (in an article)

      • Chapter 5

      • row 1

    7. Numbers in a list of four or more numbers

      • 1, 2, 4, and 8 bits, respectively

  2. Numbers written as words

    1. Numbers less than 10 that do not represent exact measurements.

      • only three times

      • four 32-bit words

      • eight lists

      • nine pages

      • a three-way interaction

    2. Zero when it is easier to comprehend written as a word.

      • zero wait states

    3. Any number that begins a sentence, title, or heading.

      • Sixteen-bit processors were used.

      • Thirteen of 20 processors failed.

    4. Common fractions

      • one fifth of the users

      • execution time was reduced by two thirds

      • in one half the time

    5. Widely accepted phrases

      • the Fourth of July

      • the Ten Commandments

  3. Combined figures and words.

    1. Large numbers

      • 3 million cycles

      • 32 million bytes

    2. Back-to-back modifiers

      • in 2 three-part modules

      • twenty-four 8-bit words

  4. Ordinal numbers.

    1. Treat ordinal numbers as cardinal numbers

      • a second-order relationship

      • a third-generation chip

      • the 3rd and 12th rows of the matrix

  5. Decimal fractions

    1. Use a zero before the number if the number could be greater than one.

      • 0.54 cm

      • 0.3232323 s

    2. Use no zero before the number if the number must be less than one

      • r= -.92

      • p<.01

  6. Commas in numbers: Use a comma between groups of three numbers. Exceptions: page numbers, serial numbers, binary numbers, temperatures, acoustic frequencies, degrees of freedom, and numbers to the right of a decimal point.

    1. 1,000,000

    2. page 1064

    3. 102H345G56789999

    4. 10110011

    5. 2022° (degrees) Fahrenheit

    6. 2460 Hz

    7. F(24,1200)

    8. 32.234567

  7. To form plurals of numbers add s, not 's.

    1. 1950s, count by eights

Exercise 1: Each sentence contains at least one error. Correct them.

  1. I bought 3 computers.

  2. I bought three computers and 20 printers.

  3. 10 people came to the meeting at 10 o'clock.

  4. They have sold four million copies of this software so far.

  5. The 1st new computer system is ordered already.

  6. I've tried this 2 or 3 times.

  7. This sentence is 6 words long.

  8. This increases processing speed by five per cent.

  9. The screen is 32.56 cm wide and eight cm tall.

  10. Look in lab number seven.

  11. Chapter 7 of this book begins on page 1,230.

  12. The probability of getting this relationship by chance is less than 0.05.

  13. 2 or three weeks ago that bug was fixed.

  14. They voted by a 2/3 majority.

  15. When the result is multiplied by one hundred, you get a percentage.

  16. The first and tenth lines of the matrix contain 0s

  17. Two two-part modules were added.

  18. All of these 8's have to be written as words.

  19. Please wait outside Room Seven.

  20. This chip has a drawing speed of eight ns/pixel with 32 bits per pixel.

Exercise 2: Write five sentences which contain at least one number each.

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Steve Tripp tripp(at)u-aizu.ac.jp