• Write out numbers that require no more than two words, remembering that a hyphenated number between twenty-one and ninety-nine counts as one word.
  • Juan is exactly six feet tall.
  • Juan is exactly seventy-two inches tall.
  • Juan is over 183 centimeters tall.
  • Hartford has over ninety-three thousand citizens.
  • Hartford has 97,500 citizens.

• Consistency is important here!
  • Juan is about 183 centimeters tall, which means that he is just over 6 feet tall.

• Avoid beginning a sentence with a number that is not written out.
  • Seventy-two inches equals approximately 1.83 meters.

• Use figures instead of words for:
  • Dates and years: December 18, 1997.
  • Decimals, percentages, and fractions: 235.485, 55%, 14 1/4
  • Scores: The Bulls won the final game by a score of 114 to 106.
  • Finances: Tickets cost $35.50 apiece. The city spent $1.1 million for snow removal last year. (Or use $1,100,000.) You can leave the comma out of figures in the thousands: They spent $7500 on that car before junking it.
  • Time: 9:15 a.m. (If you use the word o'clock, however, spell out the number in words: We left at seven o'clock.)