English Grammar - Using Numbers, Making Lists

7/29/2019 English Grammar - Using Numbers, Making Lists

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The advice proffered here is meant primarily for standard academic prose. Business and

technical writing sometimes goes by a different set of standards, and writers of those kinds of

text should consult a manual dedicated to those standards. (The APA Publication Manual has an

extensive section devoted to the use of numbers in technical papers. The Chicago Manual of

Style [chapter 13] addresses just about every issue that might come up in a technical or

mathematical text.)

• Write out numbers that require no more than two

words, remembering that a hyphenated number

between twenty-one and ninety-nine counts as one word. Some

writing manuals will suggest that whole numbers from zero

through nine should be written as words, and numbers from ten

on up should be written as numerals, especially when the word

modifies a noun as in five students or two professors.

o Use numerals, however, when the number modifies a unit of measure,

time, proportion, etc.: 2 inches, 5-minute delay, 65 mph, 23 years old,page 23, 2 percent.

o Use numerals for decimals and fractions: 0.75, 3.45, 1/4 oz, 7/8 in.

(Notice that abbreviations are always written in the singular form

whether they would be expressed as plurals or not: 14 oz, 12 in. The

period can be omitted from such abbreviated measurements unless

confusion would result [after in., for example]).

o Use numerals for any number greater than nine: 237 lb, 32 players.

(But this may be determined by context and how exact the numbers

are. In business and technical writing, yes, all such numbers would be

written as numerals; in other kinds of text, you might see something

like six million victims, four thousand volunteers.

o Approximate figures — fractional or otherwise — may be written out

as words: one half the students, a quarter cup of sugar, a third of the

time, four times as often.

o Place a hyphen after a unit of measure when the unit modifies a noun:

10-foot pole, 6-inch rule, 3-year-old horse. (The unit of measure in

such expressions is, for some reason, always singular.)

o When many numbers are involved, use all numerals unless all thenumbers are whole numbers less than nine.

o When fractional or decimal expression are 1 or less, the word they

modify should be singular: 0.7 meter, 0.22 cubic foot, 0.78 kilometer.

Precede decimal fractions with a value less than one with a leading

zero before the decimal point.



o Percentage expressions should be written out as words: Last semester,

78 percent of the first-year students passed English Composition. (as

opposed to 78%)

o Avoid using ordinals when writing dates: February 14, not 14th.

• There are twenty-six students in my wife's third-grade class.

• Juan is over 183 centimeters tall.

• Hartford has over ninety-three thousand citizens.

(Some people would argue that all such statistical information

should be expressed in numerals; when rounded off, however,

spelled-out words are appropriate.)

• Hartford has 97,500 citizens.

Consistency is important here!• Juan is about 183 centimeters tall, which means that he is just over 6 feet tall.

To avoid confusion by running numbers together, combine words and

numerals when one number follows another. Generally, write out the shorter

number.• My wife teaches 26 third-grade students.

• There were 10 four-foot boards on the trucks.

• The lab has 24 seventeen-inch monitors.

• We need six 50-watt bulbs for this apartment.

Avoid beginning a sentence with a number that is not written out.• Seventy-two inches equals approximately 1.83 meters.

An exception: you can begin a sentence with a date:

• 1997 was a very good year for owls.

Use figures instead of words for• Dates and years: December 18, 1997. Avoid using ordinals when writing dates:

Her birthday is on April 4th.

• Decimals, percentages, and fractions: 235.485, 55%, 14 1/4

• Scores: The Bulls won the final game by a score of 114 to 106.

• Addresses: 1032 Maple Avenue. Sometimes, though, an address is part of a

building's name, and then you'll want to spell it out: One Corporate Plaza. Unless

space is at a premium, write out numerical street names (of one hundred or less):



1032 Fifth Avenue. For proper envelope addressing form (U.S. Post Office

recommendations), click HERE.

• Political and military units (for numbers of one hundred or less): Seventh

Precinct, Fourteenth Congressional District, Fifty-third Regiment, Third Batallion,

112d Artillery

• Finances: Tickets cost $35.50 apiece. The city spent $1.1 million for snow removal

last year. (Or use $1,100,000.) You can leave the comma out of figures in the

thousands: They spent $7500 on that car before junking it. Also, leave the comma

out of addresses and year-dates: In 1998, they moved to NE 12887 53rd Avenue.

• Ranges: Between 18 and 25 bald eagles have been counted near the Connecticut

River this spring.

• Time: 9:15 a.m. If you use the word o'clock, however, for rounded off times, spell

out the number in words: We left at seven o'clock. Use a.m. and p.m., not AM and

PM.

Numbered, Vertical ("Display"), and Bulleted Lists

Writing and reference manuals offer different advice for creating lists. It seems that as long

as you're consistent within your document, you can devise just about any means you want for

creating your lists, whether you want them as run-in lists (built into the flow of your text) or

as vertical lists (indented and stacked up). Technical writing may have its own requirements in

this regard, and you should consult a technical writing manual for specific rules. Use parentheses

around the numbers (no periods after the number, though) when using a run-in list:

I have three items to discuss: (1) the first item; (2) the second item; and (3) the third item.

Use semicolons to separate the items, whether they're expressed as fragments or full

sentences.

For a vertical list (sometimes called a display list), you may choose to capitalize the items

or not, and you may choose to put a comma after each item or not. (If you use commas, put a

period after the last item.)

We will now review the following three principles:

1. fairness in recruiting

2. academic eligibility

3. scholarly integrity

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/addresses.htm





Your choice to capitalize or not may depend on how elaborate your lists are and how many

of them you have in your text. If a vertical list contains complete sentences or lengthy and

complex items, you may prefer to end each element in the list with a semicolon, except for the

last element, which you will end with a period.

Most coaches conform to three basic principles in recruiting new players:

1. Look for players first who can fill those positions you will need the subsequent

year;

2. Look for players who are "court smart" as opposed to being merely athletic;

3. Look for players who are academically eligible and who have an academic purpose

in going to college.

Although the elements in the list above begin with capital letters, that is not absolutely

necessary. Notice that there is no "and" at the end of the next-to-last element (although some

reference manuals allow for or recommend its use). Although we have used numbers for this list,bullets would work equally well if numbering seems inappropriate or irrelevant. The list below is

based on a format suggested by the New York Public Library's Writer's Guide to Style and

Usage:

Most coaches conform to three basic principles in recruiting new players—

Look for players first who can fill those positions you will need the subsequent year

Look for players who are "court-smart" as opposed to being merely athletic

Look for players who are academically eligible and who have an academic purpose

in going to college

Note that this format does not include a period even at the end of the last

element. Most writers, however, want to use some kind of punctuation in

their listed items. When the introductory statement is a complete sentence,

you can end it with either a period or a colon. Use a colon if the sentence is

clearly anticipatory of the list, especially if it contains phrasing such as the

following or as follows. A colon is also appropriate if the list that follows will

be numbered or will establish a priority order. If the introductory statement is not a complete

statement, however, neither a period nor a colon would be appropriate since that would interrupt

the grammatical structure of the statement; use either no punctuation or try the dash techniquenoted above.

Listing Names in Alphabetical Order

Putting people's names in alphabetical order is done on a letter-by-letter basis, taking into

consideration all the letters before the comma that separates the last from the first name. Omit



titles (such as Lady, Sir, Sister), degrees (M.D., Ph.D.), etc., that precede or follow names. A

suffix that is an essential part of the name — such as Jr., Sr., or a roman numeral — appears

after the given name, preceded by a comma. (Ford, Henry J., III or Pepin, Theophilus, Jr.)

Beethoven, Ludwig van (The van or von in Dutch or German names, if not

capitalized by family usage,appears after the first name; if capitalized, it appears before the last name and determines the alphabetical order.)

D'Annunzio, Gabriele

Deere-Brown, Juan (Ignore the hyphen.)

Deere-Brown, Juan-Poivre

Dante Alighieri (Some Italian names of the 15th century or before are alphabetized

by first name)

D'Arcy, Pierre

de Gaulle, Charles (With French names, the de goes before the last name when the

last name contains only one syllable. See de Maupassant, below.)

Descartes, René

Ford, Henry E., III

Garcia Lorca, Federico (Use full surnames for Spanish names.)

López y Quintana, María

MacDonald, George

Maupassant, Guy de

M'Cauley, Josephine

McCullers, Carson

Morris, Robert

Morris, William

Morrison, Toni

O'Keeffe, Georgia (Ignore the apostrophe.)

Pepin, R. E.

Pepin, Theophilus, Jr.

Pepino, D.

Rueda, Lope de (For Spanish names, de comes after the first name)

Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de

San Marco, Josefina

St. Denis, Ruth

Von Braun, Werner (See Beethoven, above.)

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English Grammar - Using Numbers, Making Lists