Writing Lab

Spell out a number when the number begins a sentence. Five hundred employees were laid off at Stanley Corporation.
Note: You can rearrange the sentence if spelling out the number would require three or more words.
o Incorrect: 829 people (or fifty-eight percent) who responded to the survey reported that they held jobs in fields outside of their college majors.
o Correct: Of those who responded to the survey, 829 people (or fifty-eight percent) reported that they held jobs in fields outside of their college majors.

Spell out a number when the number is written in one or two words (except as noted on the back of this handout). The correct procedure requires twelve painstaking steps.

Hyphenate a number written as two words if it is under one hundred. There are twenty-two students in my class.

Use a hyphen to separate the numerator from the denominator in written fractions. Two-thirds of the class chose the correct answer.

Form the plural of numbers by adding “s” or -“ies.” In the sixties, there were many hippies roaming the countryside.Hundreds of geese flocked to the lake before heading south.