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It can be difficult to know how to write numbers in academic writing (e.g. five or 5 , 1 million or 1,000,000 ). This section gives some guidelines on when to use words to write numbers, and when to use numerals . There are also some exceptions to the rule which are considered, i.e. times when you might expect to use words but should instead use numerals. There is also a checklist at the end, that you can use to check the use of numbers in your own writing.
In general, words should be used for zero to ten , and numerals used from 11 onwards. The same rule should be applied to ordinal numbers, i.e. use words for first, second up to tenth, and numbers plus 'th' (or 'st') from 11th onwards. However, it is always best to check what the accepted practice is at your university (or in your department/on your course), and remember that some common referencing systems have their own, different requirements, as follows.
Before looking at when to use numerals (which is almost all other situations, see next), it is useful to look at important exceptions.
(1) When the number begins a sentence , you should use words , whatever the size of the number (though if possible, rewrite the sentence so the number is not at the beginning).
(2) When expressing part of a very large round number , e.g. million, billion, you should use words for that large number part (it is common to use abbreviations m for million and bn billion ).
Conversely, numerals should be used rather than words, whatever the size of the number, when large and small numbers are combined , since this makes comparisons easier.
Numerals are used for almost all other situations. These include the following.
The following are a few other points to remember when using numbers.
American Psychological Association (2019a) Numbers Expressed in Words . Available at: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/numbers/words (Accessed: 26 December, 2019).
American Psychological Association (2019b) Numbers Expressed in Numerals . Available at: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/numbers/numerals (Accessed: 26 December, 2019).
Harvard Wiki (2019) Numbers . Available at: https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/display/HSG/Numbers . (Accessed: 26 December, 2019).
University of Bristol (2015) Using numbers . Available at: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_33.htm (Accessed: 26 December, 2019).
University of New England (nd) Numbers in academic writing . Available at: https://aso-resources.une.edu.au/academic-writing/miscellaneous/numbers/ (Accessed: 26 December, 2019).
University of Oxford (2015) Style Guide . Available at: https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/University%20of%20Oxford%20Style%20Guide.pdf (Accessed: 26 December, 2019).
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Below is a checklist for using numbers in academic writing. Use it to check your writing, or as a peer to help.
Words have been used for , and numerals for numbers 11 and above (unless there are different requirements e.g. ). | ||
Numbers (written as numerals) are used to . | ||
Very are expressed using . | ||
If , numerals are used throughout. | ||
Numerals have been used for . |
Read more about using complex grammar in the next section.
Go back to the previous section about describing data .
Author: Sheldon Smith ‖ Last modified: 16 January 2022.
Sheldon Smith is the founder and editor of EAPFoundation.com. He has been teaching English for Academic Purposes since 2004. Find out more about him in the about section and connect with him on Twitter , Facebook and LinkedIn .
Compare & contrast essays examine the similarities of two or more objects, and the differences.
Cause & effect essays consider the reasons (or causes) for something, then discuss the results (or effects).
Discussion essays require you to examine both sides of a situation and to conclude by saying which side you favour.
Problem-solution essays are a sub-type of SPSE essays (Situation, Problem, Solution, Evaluation).
Transition signals are useful in achieving good cohesion and coherence in your writing.
Reporting verbs are used to link your in-text citations to the information cited.
According to APA Style, you should normally use numerals for the numbers 10 and above. You should use words to express numbers below 10 (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine).
Note, however, that APA lists a wide variety of exceptions. For instance, numbers that appear right before a unit of measurement should be expressed as numerals, regardless of where they fall, before or after 10. Example: Give him 5 cups of soup.
The APA also addresses this question directly in this webpage .
The sections in APA that address numbers are 6.32-6.39 in the 7th edition of the Publication Manual.
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Reviewing the Rules
Why do so many people find it difficult to remember the rules for using numbers in formal writing ? Probably because the rules seem a little fuzzy sometimes.
So what can you do? It's no mystery: as with anything, read and study the rules several times, and it will all seem natural, eventually.
Spell out numbers one through ten, as in this example:
Spell out numbers above ten, unless writing the number would involve using more than two words. For example:
It would look odd to begin a sentence with a numeral.
However, you should try to avoid using long, clunky numbers at the beginning of a sentence. Instead of writing that four hundred and fifty people attended a party, you could re-write:
Use numbers for dates:
And use numbers for phone numbers:
And use numbers for telling time if using a.m. or p.m.:
But spell out times when using "o'clock" or when the a.m. or p.m. are omitted:
Writing Numbers in Word Form: A Complete Guide
Want to write numbers in word form but don’t know where to start? It’s easier than you think! Follow a few simple steps, and you’ll be an expert in no time. First, understand the basics of how numbers in word form work. Second, break down the number into smaller parts, such as hundreds, tens, and units. Finally, put it all together in a sentence. Keep reading for a detailed guide.
In this section, we’ll break down the steps to convert numerical digits into their word counterparts. Whether you’re writing a check, a formal document, or an essay, knowing how to spell numbers correctly is crucial.
Familiarize yourself with word forms for numbers from one to twenty and multiples of ten. These foundational numbers serve as building blocks for writing larger numbers.
Divide the number into smaller, more manageable parts—usually by place value. For example, the number 342 is broken down into 300, 40, and 2.
Spell out each part individually. For 342, you’d write "three hundred," "forty," and "two."
Combine the word forms of the parts to form the complete number. So, 342 becomes "three hundred forty-two."
Remember to use hyphens for numbers between twenty-one and ninety-nine. Commas are used in numbers over one thousand, like "one thousand, two hundred."
After mastering these steps, you’ll be able to write any number in word form accurately and confidently.
What are the basic number words i need to know.
Start with one through twenty, and then learn multiples of ten like thirty, forty, etc.
Break it down: one thousand two hundred thirty-four.
Yes, use hyphens between twenty-one and ninety-nine.
Break them down by place value, such as "three million, two hundred thousand."
Yes, especially with numbers like eleven and twelve, which don’t fit the usual pattern.
And there you have it! Writing numbers in word form doesn’t have to be a daunting task. By following these simple steps—understanding basic number words, breaking down the number, writing each part in word form, combining the parts, and correctly using hyphens and commas—you’ll be well on your way to mastering this skill.
Practice makes perfect, so don’t hesitate to write out numbers whenever you get the chance. Whether you’re jotting down a grocery list or drafting a formal letter, give it a go.
For further reading, you might want to check out guides on specific number-related grammar rules or practice exercises online. Happy writing!
Kermit Matthews is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with more than a decade of experience writing technology guides. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science and has spent much of his professional career in IT management.
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FILE- Gulls follow a commercial fishing boat as crewmen haul in their catch in the Gulf of Maine, in this Jan. 17, 2012 file photo. TExecutive branch agencies will likely have more difficulty regulating the environment, public health, workplace safety and other issues under a far-reaching decision by the Supreme Court. The court’s 6-3 ruling on Friday overturned a 1984 decision colloquially known as Chevron that has instructed lower courts to defer to federal agencies when laws passed by Congress are not crystal clear. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
The Supreme Court building is seen on Friday, June 28, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Executive branch agencies will likely have more difficulty regulating the environment, public health, workplace safety and other issues under a far-reaching decision by the Supreme Court .
The court’s 6-3 ruling on Friday overturned a 1984 decision colloquially known as Chevron that has instructed lower courts to defer to federal agencies when laws passed by Congress are not crystal clear.
The 40-year-old decision has been the basis for upholding thousands of regulations by dozens of federal agencies, but has long been a target of conservatives and business groups who argue that it grants too much power to the executive branch, or what some critics call the administrative state.
The Biden administration has defended the law, warning that overturning so-called Chevron deference would be destabilizing and could bring a “convulsive shock” to the nation’s legal system.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said federal judges “must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.”
The ruling does not call into question prior cases that relied on the Chevron doctrine, Roberts wrote.
Here is a look at the court’s decision and the implications for government regulations going forward.
Atlantic herring fishermen sued over federal rules requiring them to pay for independent observers to monitor their catch. The fishermen argued that the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act did not authorize officials to create industry-funded monitoring requirements and that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to follow proper rulemaking procedure.
In two related cases, the fishermen asked the court to overturn the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine, which stems from a unanimous Supreme Court case involving the energy giant in a dispute over the Clean Air Act. That ruling said judges should defer to the executive branch when laws passed by Congress are ambiguous.
In that case, the court upheld an action by the Environmental Protection Agency under then-President Ronald Reagan.
In the decades following the ruling, Chevron has been a bedrock of modern administrative law, requiring judges to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of congressional statutes.
But the current high court, with a 6-3 conservative majority has been increasingly skeptical of the powers of federal agencies. Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch have questioned the Chevron decision. Ironically, it was Gorsuch’s mother, former EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch, who made the decision that the Supreme Court upheld in 1984.
With a closely divided Congress, presidential administrations have increasingly turned to federal regulation to implement policy changes. Federal rules impact virtually every aspect of everyday life, from the food we eat and the cars we drive to the air we breathe and homes we live in.
President Joe Biden’s administration, for example, has issued a host of new regulations on the environment and other priorities, including restrictions on emissions from power plants and vehicle tailpipes , and rules on student loan forgiveness , overtime pay and affordable housing.
Those actions and others could be opened up to legal challenges if judges are allowed to discount or disregard the expertise of the executive-branch agencies that put them into place.
With billions of dollars potentially at stake, groups representing the gun industry and other businesses such as tobacco, agriculture, timber and homebuilding, were among those pressing the justices to overturn the Chevron doctrine and weaken government regulation.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed an amicus brief last year on behalf of business groups arguing that modern application of Chevron has “fostered aggrandizement’’ of the executive branch at the expense of Congress and the courts.
David Doniger, a lawyer and longtime Natural Resources Defense Council official who argued the original Chevron case in 1984, said he feared that a ruling to overturn the doctrine could “free judges to be radical activists” who could “effectively rewrite our laws and block the protections they are supposed to provide.”
“The net effect will be to weaken our government’s ability to meet the real problems the world is throwing at us — big things like COVID and climate change,″ Doniger said.
“This case was never just about fish,’' said Meredith Moore of the environmental group Ocean Conservancy. Instead, businesses and other interest groups used the herring fishery “to attack the foundations of the public agencies that serve the American public and conserve our natural resources,’' she said.
The court ruling will likely open the floodgates to litigation that could erode critical protections for people and the environment, Moore and other advocates said.
“For more than 30 years, fishery observers have successfully helped ensure that our oceans are responsibly managed so that fishing can continue in the future,’' said Dustin Cranor of Oceana, another conservation group.
He called the case “just the latest example of the far right trying to undermine the federal government’s ability to protect our oceans, waters, public lands, clean air and health.’'
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey called the decision a fitting follow-up to a 2022 decision — in a case he brought — that limits the EPA’s ability to control greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The court held that Congress must speak with specificity when it wants to give an agency authority to regulate on an issue of major national significance.
Morrisey, now the GOP nominee for governor, called Chevron “a misguided doctrine under which courts defer to legally dubious interpretations of statutes put out by federal administrative agencies.”
The Supreme Court ruling will almost certainly shift power away from the executive branch and Congress and toward courts, said Craig Green, a professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law.
“Federal judges will now have the first and final word about what statutes mean,″ he said. “That’s a big shift in power.″
In what some observers see as a historic irony, many conservatives who now attack Chevron once celebrated it. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was among those who hailed the original ruling as a way to rein in liberal laws.
“Conservatives believed in this rule until they didn’t,’' Green said in an interview.
In recent years, conservatives have focused on “deconstruction of the administrative state,’' even if the result lessens the ability of a conservative president to impose his beliefs on government agencies.
“If you weaken the federal government, you get less government,’' Green said — an outcome that many conservatives, including those who back former President Donald Trump, welcome.
The ruling will likely “gum up the works for federal agencies and make it even harder for them to address big problems. Which is precisely what the critics of Chevron want,” said Jody Freeman, director of the environmental and energy law program at Harvard Law School.
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COMMENTS
Here are some key rules to keep in mind: 1. Spell out numbers one to nine: In general, spell out numbers from one to nine (e.g., "two apples", "seven participants") to improve readability and avoid confusion. 2. Use numerals for numbers 10 and above: Use numerals for numbers 10 and above (e.g., "12 years old", "22 participants ...
A simple rule for using numbers in writing is that small numbers ranging from one to ten (or one to nine, depending on the style guide) should generally be spelled out. Larger numbers (i.e., above ten) are written as numerals. For example, instead of writing "It cost ten-thousand four-hundred and sixteen dollars to renovate the local library ...
Rule 7. Write decimals using figures. As a courtesy to readers, many writers put a zero in front of the decimal point. Example: A meter is about 1.1 yards. As a courtesy to readers, many writers put a zero in front of the decimal point with numbers less than one.
Repeat numbers in commercial writing. The bill will not exceed one hundred (100) dollars. Use numerals in legal writing. The cost of damage is $1,365.42. Numbers in series and statistics should be consistent. two apples, six oranges, and three bananas. NOT: two apples, 6 oranges, and 3 bananas. 115 feet by 90 feet (or) 115' x 90'.
When to Spell Out Numbers According to Different Style Guides. Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Jul 16, 2021 • 4 min read. Different editorial style manuals have different rules for when to spell out numbers instead of using numerals. Here are a few examples of when to spell out numbers, and when to use numerals.
Revised on July 23, 2023. Numbers can be written either as words (e.g., one hundred) or numerals (e.g., 100). In this article we follow the guidelines of APA Style, one of the most common style guides used in academic writing. In general, words should be used for numbers from zero through nine, and numerals should be used from 10 onwards.
Spell out all numbers between zero and ten. When numbers are used to start a sentence, they should always be spelled out. Example: Twenty-four thousand applications were submitted in 2018. When dealing with technical or scientific writing, numerals can be used for all numbers above ten.
academic writing. You need to know and use the conventions for writing numbers correctly when you are writing and proofreading your work. 1. When to write numbers in words • Write in words one or two-word numbers, rounded numbers and ordinal numbers For general academic writing, you need to write these numbers in words: all numbers under one
Ordinal numbers (i.e., third, 12th), follow the same known rule. Spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence. If a number begins a sentence it should be spelled out. Use numerals for money. Except for cents or amounts over one million, all money should be expressed in number figures and not alphabets.
9. Two numbers next to each other. It can be confusing if you write "7 13-year-olds", so write one of them as a numeral, like "seven 13-year-olds". Pick the number that has the fewest letters. 10. Ordinal numbers and consistency. Don't say "He was my 1st true love," but rather "He was my first true love.".
Numbers. Numbers are used in all sorts of scholarly works. For example, writers may report numerical information about participants (number of participants, demographic information such as age, etc.) as well as the results of statistical analyses. Even writers who are not conducting empirical research often use statistical information to ...
There are several rules of thought on how to handle writing numbers, but the most common is pretty simple. Spell out numbers under 10 (zero through nine), and use the numeric symbols for numbers 10 and up. I bought eight candy bars from the vending machine. I average eating 29 candy bars per month. There are some exceptions to the rule.
Generally, it's best to write specific years in Arabic numerals. For example: I was born in 1972. Spell out decades in formal writing, but know that it's also safe to write them in numerals. Just remember there's no apostrophe before the 's.'. For example: I love the fashion in the sixties.
conventions. Scientific and technical writing have their own conventions, and students should consult a manual dedicated to those standards. The main rules about the use of numbers in standard academic writing are about: 1. When to write numbers in words 2. How to avoid confusion with numbers in a sentence 3. When to use digits for numbers 4 ...
1. Spell out numbers from zero to nine. Numbers that are spelled out from zero to nine should be written as words in an essay. For example, "two apples," "sixty-three percent," or "nine thousand.". This helps to maintain consistency and readability in the text. 2. Use numerals for numbers 10 and above.
I like the MLA style, which advises that for a percentage less than one hundred, you should write it in words: two percent, seventy-six percent, ninety-nine percent, but, for a percentage greater than one hundred, write it in numerals: 110 percent, 500 percent, 999 percent. Besides that, as you can see, in non-technical writing, it is better to ...
Starting sentences with numbers. Avoid starting a sentence with a numeral. Either write the number in words or rearrange your sentence. For example, "Three hundred and sixty-five days make one year" could become "There are 365 days in a year". If you start a sentence with a year, write "The year" first e.g.
The two styles have very different rules for when to write numbers as words or numerals. MLA Style spells out numbers that can be written in one or two words ( three, fifteen, seventy-six, one thousand, twelve billion) and to use numerals for other numbers ( 2¾; 584; 1,001; 25,000,000 ). APA Style, on the other hand, generally uses words for ...
Use numerals if you are writing an essay about a scientific subject or an essay that includes frequent use of numbers, like statistical findings. Always use numerals: in front of units of measurements. Example: 5 millimeters; with abbreviations such as 6 lbs., 4:20 p.m., $9, 2", 4%. in dates: Example: April 1, 2014; in decimal fractions ...
The following are a few other points to remember when using numbers. Consistency. You should be consistent in how you write numbers; for example, if write a figure like 7bn in one place, do not write a figure like 5 billion in another. Use of commas. When giving numerals of 1,000 or larger, use commas for each thousand, e.g. 5,500, 8,326,500.
Answer. According to APA Style, you should normally use numerals for the numbers 10 and above. You should use words to express numbers below 10 (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine). Note, however, that APA lists a wide variety of exceptions. For instance, numbers that appear right before a unit of measurement should be ...
Writing Numbers Above Ten. Spell out numbers above ten, unless writing the number would involve using more than two words. For example: I have sixty-three dead bugs in my collection. My cousin has 207 bugs in his. This site has given me a thousand helpful hints for my homework. My grandmother is seventy-two today.
These foundational numbers serve as building blocks for writing larger numbers. Step 2: Break Down the Number into Parts. Divide the number into smaller, more manageable parts—usually by place value. For example, the number 342 is broken down into 300, 40, and 2. Step 3: Write Each Part in Word Form. Spell out each part individually.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said federal judges "must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority." ... called Chevron "a misguided doctrine under which courts defer to legally dubious interpretations of statutes put out by federal administrative ...
Steve Bannon, a former Donald Trump White House strategist, reported to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Monday to begin a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena.
Read CNN's analysis and commentary of the first 2024 presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in Atlanta.
Donald Trump is ahead of President Biden by six percentage points among likely voters in a new national survey. Overall, 74 percent of voters view Mr. Biden as too old for the job, an uptick since ...