Count On It

By Colleen Walsh Fong

When I’m developing content for branding to help clients grow their businesses I don’t always remember all the rules. The English grammar, punctuation, spelling, style, and usage rules, that is. It’s because there are so many of them. English has more words and way more exceptions to rules than most Western languages. And they’re changing all the time.

Take the sentence I just wrote. When I was learning to write that would have been considered a fragment, and my teacher would have called me out for starting a sentence with “and.” But these days almost anything goes, especially in copywriting. Our collective attention span has shrunk. So good copywriters and business branders write in short bursts of words because that style holds readers’ attention better.

Style issues can be particularly testy because they are matters of preference more than hard and fast rules. There are a few “go-to” reference manuals for style, and some online writing checker tools. But the two that I rely upon the most are the Chicago Manual of Style published by The University of Chicago Press and The Associated Press Stylebook. I usually defer to the Chicago style. But I like to take the path of least resistance. Others might call it the lazy way out. So where numbers are concerned I come down on the side of The AP Stylebook.

Writing numbers in a text document is different than recording them in a financial ledger. Don’t let numbers trip you up when you write about them.

The Chicago Manual of Style calls for spelling out numbers one through one hundred and using numerals for numbers from 101 on. That’s one hundred words they’re asking us to spell, and some of them are long, requiring gads of keystrokes.

The Associated Press Stylebook recommends spelling out numbers one through nine and using digits beginning with 10 and beyond. This style is much more to my liking. Not only do I have to spell out 91 fewer words, the ones I do have to put into letter form are short.

You can use either style, and probably come up with a few others if you do some research. Whichever style you choose to adopt, just be sure to use it consistently.

And if you’d rather let me do the research for you contact me and let’s get started!

Colleen produces custom copywriting and content for branding businesses of all sizes.