Online Writing Tutorial - Numbers Style Guide

How to style numbers within my article was perhaps the hardest style issue for me to remember when I first started writing. When do you spell out numbers? When do you keep numbers as numerals? How do you write the time or dollar amounts? What about dates?

Numbers come up in articles all the time. It's so important to not only follow your publisher's guidelines, but to keep things consistent when writing online.

Spelling out numbers vs. using numerals

The rule for spelling out numbers versus using numerals is an easy one to remember. The numbers zero through nine are always spelled out; 10 and up are always numerals. This numbers rule applies when you are talking about a specific quantity.

Example: Sally ordered 10 milkshakes, but the waiter only brought her nine.

The only time this numbers rule does not apply is if you begin your sentence with a number.

Example: Thirty-five customers lined up for the store's grand opening.

Ages confuse me!

When writing the age of a person or animal, use numerals. If you are talking about the age of an object, use the same rule as quantities. If the age of the object is between zero and nine, write it out. If it is 10 years or older, use numerals.

Example: Junior is 5, but his bike is seven years old.

When writing ages, there are also rules about hyphenation. If the age is the object of the sentence and/or used as a noun, do not hyphenate the "years old". If the age is used as an adjective, then do hyphenate.

Example: The 10-year-old girl is the one on the left. The other girl is 9 years old.

Time - Is it seven o'clock in the morning or 7 a.m or 7:00 a.m.?

When writing online, it's important to keep your article as succinct as possible, so cross out the "seven o'clock in the morning" right off the bat. That same reason is why the last option - 7:00 a.m. - shouldn't be used either.

If you don't need the minutes to make your time understood, then don't use them. The :00 just clutters up your article and makes it harder for your online reader to read it.

Example: The store opens at 10 a.m., but the post office doesn't open until 10:30 a.m.

How to write dollar amounts

The same rule for time when writing numbers also applies to dollar amounts. If it is a whole dollar amount, you don't need the decimal or the two zeros.

If you are dropping the cents, then don't use a decimal point either. It's unnecessary punctuation.

Example: This shirt costs $10, but this shirt is only $8.99.

What about dates?

Dates are probably the most confusing, because there are so many ways to write the date. Also, publishers may have different styles they may want you to use, but here's the rule for online writing - spell it out when possible.

If you are tight on space, it's okay to write 12/13/10. If space isn't an issue, the proper way to write that date is December 13, 2010.

Note the comma between the day and the year. If the date is in the middle of a sentence, a comma should be placed after the year as well. If the date uses only the month and year, there is no comma between them.

Example: On December 13, 2010, I will be 32 years old. In July 2010, my daughter will be six.

If the year is implied, do not use the ordinal in the date.

Example: My birthday is December 13, not December 13th. Danny's birthday is November 1, not November first.

Perhaps the most common mistake I see online is how to write decades. So many people want to put an apostrophe behind the decade to make it plural. The apostrophe is used to show possession or to indicate there are letters or numbers missing, like a contraction. It is not used to make something plural.

Example: I was born in the 1970s, not the 1970's.

Sources:

"The Basics", The Yahoo! Style Guide

"Ages", The Yahoo! Style Guide

"Time", The Yahoo! Style Guide

"Money and currency", The Yahoo! Style Guide

"Dates", The Yahoo! Style Guide