Page:Handbook of style in use at the Riverside press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (IA handbookofstylei00riverich).pdf/28



Figures should be used with per cent, in matter of a statistical character, but not in other cases. Do not use the % sign in any case.

Figures are used to express degrees of heat; as, 71° F.; or specifications of gravity; as, The specific gravity of lead is 11.352.

Records of votes, and of time in a race, are expressed more clearly in figures; as, 20 yeas to 41 nays; one mile in 2 minutes, 23½ seconds.

Numbers containing decimals or fractions are usually put in figures; but do not use a fraction alone, except a decimal. For example, 145.1 cm.; .1 cm.; 2½ yards; but not ½ mile.

In dates omit d, th, and st after figures; as, October 2, 1902; November 1, December 4. Use the forms 2d of November, 1st of March, 4th of June, etc., when the day precedes the month,

Where numbers are spelled out, express the amount by hundreds rather than by thousands; i.e., twenty-eight hundred and sixty, rather than two thousand eight hundred and sixty.

In printing connected consecutive numbers, omit the hundreds from the second number, and use an en dash between the figures; as, 1910–11; 230–33. But, of course, 299–301. Note that in indexes and footnotes, the citations of immediately consecutive pages are sometimes to be printed thus: 33, 34, 35; 33, 34; and sometimes thus: 33–35; 33–34; the distinction being that, where the figures are connected by the dash, the subject is treated continuously on the pages referred to, whereas the disconnected figures show that the subject is mentioned on each page cited, but not to the exclusion of other subjects. The copy must be followed strictly in such cases.

Use commas with five or more than five figures; as, 10,579,153,700; but 2634. This rule does not apply to tabular work, where in any column there are more than four figures. In such cases, the use of the comma with the larger number requires its use throughout the column.

Numbered paragraphs or sub-sections should begin: (1)(2)or 1.&ensp;2. The proper space after these is an en quad after the period, and a 3-em space after the parenthesis.