Numbers

[sweet_sparrow]

Hi, all. My first post here, though I've lurked a bit in the comments and tried to help people out.

My question regarding numbers is: Spell them out or write them all numerically?

Please note, I'm not asking this because I need help deciding. Rather, I'm curious where you all stand on the matter and hope to spark an interesting discussion. My experiences have taught me that this is a choice dependent on the writer in question with no right or wrong answer, per se. (Of course it's different if you're writing for a publishing house with its own style guide.)

For my part, I was taught that smaller/easy numbers should be spelled out (e.g. "fifty-five") and longer/complicated numbers (such as '1,999') be written numerically and I like it that way. But I have an irrational fear of numbers (outside date notation in the headers and page number notation and the like. I can deal with those), so the less numerical writing I have to do in-story, the better for my general health.

There's also the group that holds that numbers above 20/100 should be numerical, but everything below should be spelled out. And there's the question of placement and meaning, so for the sake of the argument let's suppose that we're talking about numbers used in dialogue or narrative. Say, a house number or a monetary amount a shopkeeper is quoting. How would you reflect that number in the text and why?

I hope that that's all clear. (I'm not exactly known for clarity, I'm afraid.)

Comments

[ex_pippin880]

To me, "1,562" seems to be a larger amount than "one thousand, five hundred and sixty two".

[lea_hazel]

That's interesting. I guess I'm just used to measuring things by how long they take to read.

[ex_pippin880]

I think it's because I think of numbers in numerals, so if I see them written out, I have to convert them to a string of numbers before I can get the gist of them, and usually I'm too lazy to do that so the number is just a blur.

So would "one thousand, five hundred and sixty two" be mentally larger than "three thousand and five"?

[lea_hazel]

So would "one thousand, five hundred and sixty two" be mentally larger than "three thousand and five"?

No, I don't think so. Actually, I think it's the same effect you mentioned, it just goes in the opposite direction.