Editing Tip: Spell Out Numbers One to Ten, and Don't Repeat Them in Parentheses

Apparently, there used to be some formal editing rule that said you had to write numbers twice, repeating them once in parentheses, like this:

Before the consolidation order, there were more than eight (8) other, separate cases on file.

With the recent amendment of the class definition, the class size increased from three thousand (3,000) to four thousand (4,000).

You still see this number-repeating idea often in legal writing. It's not necessary. The better rule is to spell out numbers one to ten, use numerals for numbers higher than 10, and forget about repeating numbers in parentheses. The revision to the two examples would look like this:

Before the consolidation order, there were more than eight other, separate cases on file.

With the recent amendment of the class definition, the class size increased from 3,000 to 4,000.

Much easier to read, isn't it?

Source: Bryan A. Garner, The Winning Brief.

Comments

[Dan Canon]

Higher than 10?? I always thought it was higher than 50 or so.

At any rate, I agree that the parenthetical is clunky and no fun to look at.

[SR]

I don't think that writing numbers in parentheses was ever a rule of writing. And I definitely don't think that anyone ever argued that it was easier to read. I thought it was simply a method of avoiding typos. If you write the number twice, there is less likelihood of a mistake occurring.