What if everything you ever learned about spelling out numbers was … well, just plain wrong?
Why do we write out numbers in full instead of writing digits; 1, 5, 9 43, 700, …?
It’s just convention! Just a bunch of old, silly, obsolete, inconsistent, blindly-repeated rules.
In general, well-established English language and grammar rules are helpful. As a writer, I find that most of those rules have a clear logic behind them and that knowing and following the rules helps me write texts that are easier to read and understand.
But the generally-accepted rules about numbers don’t add up for me.
That’s why I strongly believe that we should all use digits for numbers, regardless of whether we are writing for online or for other media and of whether we are writing small numbers or big ones.
The rules about spelling out numbers are arbitrary and inconsistent
A 5-minute search will prove to you that there is no consensus in English on how to write numbers in text. In fact, it all seems rather arbitrary, if not downright useless.
Styleguides disagree on:
- which numbers should be spelled out: 1-9, 1-10, 1-20, or even 1-99; round numbers like 20 or 50; only multiples of 100; etc.
- whether to write three hundred thousand, 300 thousand or 300,000
- whether or not you should spell out numbers at the start of a sentence.
Meanwhile, many usability experts recommend using digits for all numbers, claiming that they stand out more easily and the brain processes them more quickly.
So which advice should writers follow?
Usability RULES!
It seems glaringly obvious in my mind (yes, I know I’m in a minority…): use digits! Today, most of us read more on screens than on paper (regardless of the channel the text was originally created for). We have so much information to process in a day, why slow down our reading just to obey some arbitrary and archaic rules?
Moreover, if digits are easier to read than numbers spelled out, and the old rules are all arbitrary anyway, why restrict this great usability trick to texts intended for reading on-screen?
I believe the time has come to let go of the old rules and start writing for today’s readers: use digits for numbers, always….
* The 1 exception to the rule (there’s always 1, isn’t there?)
Non-specific numbers – generally used in colloquial phrases – and very large numbers are better spelled out:
“One day we’ll be used to using digits instead of numbers.”
“There are one or two signs of bad weather on the way.”
“There are a thousand reasons why cats are better than dogs.”
“The Miocene epoch began 23 million years ago.”
Usability. It’s common sense.