Once upon a time a young person
started a new job. On her 1st/ first day of
work she realized she would have to put some of her thoughts
into writing. By the end of her 4th/fourth
day, she was sending fifty/50 email messages a day.
She soon realized that writing
involved following certain rules and conventions, and that many
of these rules and conventions were unknown to her. At least
8 or 9/eight or nine times a day, for example, she wondered
if she should spell a number as a word or write it as a figure.
Not wanting to appear
ignorant, she said to herself, "I’ll just do what everyone else
is doing." So she started watching for patterns.
9/Nine
of her colleagues, she noted, spelled out numbers
as the first words in sentences, but eleven/11 did not.
13/Thirteen wrote the day’s date as November 28th,
but 7/seven wrote it as November 28. And 5/five
spelled out percentages, as in twenty-five percent,
but fifteen/15 wrote percentages as figures, as in
25%.
She even noted that ten/10
of her colleagues repeated spelled-out numbers in
parentheses, as in "You have three (3) days to fill out
these seven (7) forms for your two (2) accounts,"
but that ten/10 did not. She wondered if repeating the
numbers might have something to do with a custom dating back to
the days before typewriters.
2/Two
of her colleagues spelled out dollar amounts, as in nine
thousand dollars, but eighteen/18 of them wrote
dollar amounts as figures, as in $9,000. Of the
eighteen/18 who wrote dollar amounts as figures,
thirteen/13 did not use commas in four-digit figures, as in
$1000, but 5/five did, as in
$1,000.
She also noted that, of the
eighteen/18 colleagues who wrote dollar amounts as figures,
twelve/12 included the decimal and zeroes with even
dollar amounts, as in $75.00, but 6/six did not,
as in $75. Of the 6/six who did not, however,
4/four did include the decimal and zeroes when the even
dollar amounts appeared in a series, as in $18.13, $16.00,
and $17.95. She guessed they did so for consistency.
At the end of her first week
she felt frustrated and confused.
"Maybe," she thought, "if I
review the fifteen hundred/1,500/1500 email messages I
received this week, the patterns will become clear to me," and
so she did.
Later that day her mentor
suggested she use a style manual rather than try to imitate what
her colleagues were doing.
"What’s a style manual?" she
asked.
"It’s a book that explains the
rules," her mentor said. "If you followed seven simple rules,
you would know that, in all of the examples above, the second
choice is correct."
"Where can I find a style
manual?" she asked.
"Click
here."
"Where can I find exercises to
help me practice?"
"Click
here."
Her second week was easier
than her first.
