Reader-Friendly Reports: A No-nonsense Guide to Effective Writing for MBAs, Consultants, and Other Professionals

NUMBERS AND WORDS

Since business reports regularly use numbers, a few rules about number-writing for maximum understandability have sprung up over the years.

Rule 1. Use words for 1-9, figures for 10 and up. “I own three cats and 35 shares of IBM.”

Rule 2. Never, however, start a sentence with a figure. If a number larger than 9 comes at the beginning, use words. “Twenty-three weeks ago, Schlerg Company went out of business.”

Rule 3. Very large numbers are usually best handled with a combination of figures and words: “$50 trillion,” “6.62 billion people.”

Rule 4. When using decimals like .2 and .66, always write “0.2” and “0.66,” to avoid confusion. The same applies when you’re speaking: say “zero point two” and “zero point sixty-six.”

Rule 5 ...