Spell Or Use Numbers When You Write

Most writers—including me—like to write for three reasons: We’re creative, we love to read and because we hate working with numbers. Eventually we find out that even in writing, numbers find a way to sneak into our work.
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 numeric symbols for 10 and up. I brought two puppies home from the pound.  During my lifetime I have adopted 12 dogs.

Of course since we are using the English language, there are some exceptions to the rule. For example, spell out all numbers that begin a sentence. Forty-seven-thousand contestants were turned down for “American Idol.” Eleven were selected. If you don’t feel like writing long, space-gobbling  numbers, just rephrase your sentence into American Idol turned down 47,000 contestants.

An exception to the exception is calendar years. Always use numerals for them even at the front of a sentence. 1997 was the year I was born. Another instance where the under-10/over-10 rule doesn’t apply is when writing peoples’ ages. (“She's only 4 years old”). Also when writing dates (December 25), monetary amounts ($5), percentages (25 percent) and ratios (2-to-1).

If you need to use two related numbers in the same sentence, write both as numerals if one of them should be written as a numeral. For example, normally you would write out the word "one" when writing "The snail advanced one inch." However, if you were to add a number over nine to that sentence, you would use numerals for both measurements. "The snail advanced 1 inch on the first day and 12 inches on the second."

Now, even though you might never have been a math whiz, you can be an expert at using numbers in your writing.