USE OF NUMBERS

The convention, i.e. the generally accepted practice, for the writing of numbers in an FYP is as follows:

 

Write all one digit (1 – 9) numbers as a word.
                   e.g. There were three experiments carried out initially.

Write all numbers with two or more digits, i.e. from 10 onwards in figures.
                   e.g. 33, 279

 
The rationale for this convention is that numbers of only one digit look rather bare if written as a figure in a sentence whereas numbers of two or more digits become rather clumsy if written as words.

 

There was only 1 member of the committee who disagreed with the proposal to allocate three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to carry out the research project.

There was only one member of the committee who disagreed with the proposal to allocate $350,000 to carry out the research project.

 

Note however that there are numerous exceptions to this general guideline and these are listed below.

 

A number which is used to begin a sentence should always be written as a word, regardless of its size.
                   Two hundred and fifty seven users were interviewed.

Simple fractions should be written as words
                    It was found that three quarters of the respondents felt that they should …

but a fraction which is part of a larger number should be written in figures.

Numbers prefaced with or followed by some form of measurement, usually in the form of a symbol or abbreviation, should always be written in figures
                   e.g. $358, 7kg, 277km

The specific day should always be written in figures, but the month should be written as a word.
                   e.g. 8 February 2002

Times of the day should always be written in figures.
                   e.g. The measurement was taken at 3:15 pm each day.

House numbers and street numbers should always be written in figures.
                   e.g. House 5
                          1 Queen's Road Central

Numbers used to refer to a percentage should always be written in figures.
                   e.g. Only 6 per cent …
Note that in a sentence, the words per cent should be used, whereas in
a table the percentage symbol (%) should be used.

Table and Figure numbers should always be written in figures
                   e.g. Table 3
                          as shown in Figure 5

A list of numbers, where some are only one digit and others are more than one digit, all the numbers should be written in figures.
e.g. The correct responses for the six questions are; 25, 2, 14, 3, 29 and 7