A big part of academic and professional writing is being consistent in formatting. I encourage all writers to know the format they are writing in. I write this column in AP Style. College of Medicine writers should format their peer-reviewed scholarship sections using NLM format for their CV. Students in the Colleges of Pharmacy and Graduate Studies have a little more leeway. I write using APA or MLA format for my own academic scholarship. The first thing any writer should do before writing a text for peer-review is identify the format requested.
I have noticed that students and faculty struggle with consistent formatting of numbers while working at the NEOMED Writing Center. Here are five suggestions for formatting numbers:
- First, spell out single digit numbers and use numerals for more than one digit.
- Second, never start a sentence with a numeral.
- Third, spell out numbers that are not precise figures, like, “I told you a hundred times to clean your desk.”
- Fourth, use numerals when writing currency. For instance, “I have $3 to buy lunch.”
- Fifth, use numerals for ages, years, dates, percentages and addresses.
Being consistent is the most important part of formatting the writing.
– submitted by Brian Harrell, writing specialist