Once again, I have a reader to thank for suggesting today's subject. On the question of numbers, Pam writes, "I read to write them out if it's 1-99, and other places say write them out 1-9, with 10 going either way. I understand all the exceptions, it's just the general rule thing that I can seem to find an definitive answer."

Pam said a mouthful there. The truth is, there IS NO single, definitive rule. "It depends," while insufficient, is really the only correct answer here.

As with apostrophes (see here, here, and here), the numbers topic is perhaps best handled in a series. Today we'll look at the most basic guidelines, then follow up in the coming weeks with the most common exceptions.

According the The Chicago Manual of Style (15th Edition), the rule of thumb is this:

In nontechnical contexts, the following are spelled out: whole numbers from one through one hundred, round numbers, and any number beginning a sentence. For other numbers, numerals* are used.

This general rule is...Click here to read the rest of this post at the Word-wise Blog.

The Word-wise Blog is authored by VAF member AnnaLisa of Admin Maven.


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Thanks, AnnaLisa! (Your blog is wonderful, btw.) Do you have a preference between AP and Chicago, or does it kind of depend on what you're doing? For example, most of my transcripts are verbatim insurance recorded statements where punctuation (and whether to write numbers out or not, LOL) are really the only things I control--if someone's grammar is horrible, for example, it has to stay that way. But I also transcribe minutes from county board meetings where I am expected to "clean things up a little." I often reference Grammatically Correct, by Anne Stillman, but I haven't compared that with Chicago or AP.

Keep on giving us this great information!

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Pam Deyerle - Transcriptionist in the Richmond, Virginia area
The Perfect Word Transcription Services

Thanks again for a great blog, AnnaLisa! I've bookmarked your site, but I appreciate your posting here as a reminder.

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Lezly Harrison
Laserdog Productions - Code that Doesn't Bite

Lezly: Thanks! BTW, I have your quotation marks w/other punctuation topic on my list of things to cover soon.

Pam: My personal preference is Chicago; it's very comprehensive and, besides usage and grammar, covers the other guidelines editors and publishers follow such as publication terminology, manuscript form, the proof process, etc. You know, I was just thinking this morning that under which circumstances to consult which guide would be another good topic to cover. There are a number of very good ones. Thanks for mentioning Stillman, too. I'm not familiar with that one and will definitely look into it.

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AnnaLisa Michalski, Sunny Words Writing Services