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66 Comments
- K3lviN, on 10/10/2007, -3/+93You've broken rule 5!
Title should be "Ten Rules for Writing Numbers and Numerals" - moosebaloney, on 10/10/2007, -5/+331st of all. 1000000 to one odds that diggers don't care about proper usage of numberals. that's my 1st reaction. I've read twentyfive billion stories like this 1.
- 10goto10, on 10/10/2007, -1/+21Yeah, what's next, experts telling you sentences start with a capital letter?
- HolyJuan, on 10/10/2007, -4/+19Rule 5 says not to start with a number. It should be "The Number of Rules for Writing Numbers and Numerals Shall be Ten. No More. No Less. Twelve is Right Out."
- tehWyman, on 08/19/2009, -1/+15Pretty common rules that everyone should know...
- surasshu, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11So you're saying most diggers didn't finish primary/middle school?
- AntonShevchuk, on 10/10/2007, -2/+101. Number versus numeral
2. Spell small numbers out
3. No other standard rule
4. Using the comma
5. Don’t start a sentence with a numeral
6. Centuries and decades should be spelled out
7. Percentages and recipes
8. If the number is rounded or estimated, spell it out
9. Two numbers next to each other
10. Ordinal numbers and consistency - loqqq, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8Welcome to Bottom of the Barrel Tuesday!
- CosmicJustice, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Probably why no one ever knows what the hell you're talking about.
- mitts2010, on 10/10/2007, -6/+12wow...you need an expert to tell you how to properly write out numbers?
- Castor385, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5And I always thought everybody wrote a comma as a decimal separator. Gee, the US and A is a Bizarro world!
- aussieNickuss, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7Europe is Bizarro world! Using comma and decimal points the opposite to everybody else.
- CosmicJustice, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4No "this was wrote" because you were left behind.
- DeathJux, on 10/10/2007, -4/+8lol, do you remember that you're on Digg? The majority of front-paged stories are riddled with errors from every sector of written communication... those poor sods need all the help they can get.
- GiggleStick, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3You don't understand. He's BEEN TO EUROPE. The whole thing.
- szembek, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5If you spell it out it's ok.
- Icklehamsta, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3He was making a Monty Python reference, digg him up, idiot.
- ahill7, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2But sadly, I lost points for not following the MLA style or Chicago style.
- chromie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2...or be able to look up in a stylebook.
- MEGAFLICKS, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Even in formal contexts I sometimes prefer numbers to be written in numeral form as it makes skimming for figures much easier. Finding "Four percent" in a sea of text, for example, isn't as easy as looking for "4%". That said, in formal writing I do write out numbers ten or fewer and use numerals for 11 and greater, unless a numeral would start a sentence-- in which case I re-write it.
It may seem like common sense, but I also generally omit the comma for four-digit numbers (e.g. 1500, 2500) though I use the American comma except where other commas would cause confusion. - zcreem, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Sorry I live in Germany and they do use the point, look here if you still don't believe it.
http://amazon.de/s/ref=sr_nr_p_3_11/302-0178388-3292874?ie=UTF8&rs=761258&rh=n%3A761254%2Cn%3A761258%2Cp%5F3%3A2000%20-%202500%20EUR - Icklehamsta, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2What's more confusing is the UK is part of Europe, and yet we use commas the same way people from USA do.
- OBKenobi, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Bottom of the Barrel Tuesday lasts all week on Digg.
- underdog138, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2is that so? i wasn't aware of this rule.
- gegtik, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Dugg, I'm glad to see any resource which encourages people to think about their writing.
- flarn2006, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Why is this in Tech Industry News?
- theblacknight, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2You broke rule two. Spell small numbers (like five) out.
- muffinmanpoo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Dug down for NO *****.
- encognito, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1So, when in doubt spell it out?
- costa, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It's the way we evolved, just like currencies, we have different rules for several things..
That's why when the rules differ something called SI shows up. It's also in the article, read it up. - y2048, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1http://www.grammarbook.com/numbers/numbers.asp
- operand, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I thought if it was less than 10, spell it out?
- Toyfare, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Phew! Now I can sleep at night.
- toaplan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This is overly pedantic but replacing 'rules' with 'guidelines' would make it clearer. Write readable, which in most cases means don't write out percent or per cent (looks like a name when broken up).
- muffinmanpoo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1But that's only a double correction.
- CaptJackSparrow, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This article contradicts itself.
-------------
3. ... That is, they say you should write out twelve or twenty.
7. ...you should spell the percentage out like “12 percent of the players.”
--------
So should I spell out "12/twelve" or not? And Hurry, I have stopped writing my document. ;) - justo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1wow... i love how the site's work of the day is "pedantic"
- muffinmanpoo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yeah, we don't want to run out of pixels.
- envec, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1point 3 says that regarding numbers above ten there is no standard rule.
either 12 percent or twelve percent are fine, it is a matter of preference. - CCmachined, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1uhh, english guys went to the americas and colonized it, so....
- JerodSlay, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1the AP style book is great to have for all sorts of things like this. Plus it's got a much more extensive number section.
Do you know the difference between farther and further?
http://www.amazon.com/Associated-Press-Stylebook-Briefing-Media/dp/046500489X/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7878684-2531262?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185907160&sr=1-1 - muffinmanpoo, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Yes. Yes I do.
- michaelnews, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Most people who use the Internet these days don't speak English as a native language. I was surprised to learn that. So articles like this one meet a serious need.
- AugustZephyr, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1"The concept of threeness"? I am already taking you seriously.
- dacameron, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I think you might find the usage of the comma as the decimal separator pre-dates the usage of a dot.
The dot is a vagary of USA, which was in turn adopted by the UK and its empire (in the UK's case, probably just to spite the French, knowing them).
--
Adam - braziledit, on 07/01/2009, -0/+0That depends on who you consider "everybody else." Not only in Europe, but in most countries that have had European influence, except for those of English colonization, the dot is used to separate thousands, millions, etc., while the comma is used to separate decimals. I am from Brazil, and that is how we have always written large numbers. And the same is true for most of South America.
And if anything is at all bizarre, it is considering different practices a bizarrice. They are just different. - Copywritinguk, on 10/27/2007, -0/+0I agree that when numbers are written as numerals it really does make it easier to scan the text and actually understand what is going on. More info on writing http://www.copywriting-on-demand.com/markets.htm
- rhythmchanges, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1*sigh* his statement was witty retorted in which he broke the rules of the article he is addressing.
- fstorino, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Wow, theblacknight, a triple correction!!! (you corrected HolyJuan's correction of K3lviN's correction of shankarganesh's post...)
You win!!! - OBKenobi, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Yep. :/
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Show 51 - 66 of 66 discussions
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