cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21049862
The only numbers I will ever spell are one and zero, and only when using them as a pronoun, or for emphasis, respectively.
Is there ever a reason to not to use symbols when dealing with numbers? Why would "fourteen whatevers" ever be preferable to "14 whatevers". It's just so much easier to read numbers as symbols, not spelled out.
(Caveat, not including multipliers, like "273 billion").
In general, use numerals to express numbers 10 and above, and use words to express numbers zero through nine.
Example given:
students were in the third, sixth, eighth, 10th, and 12th grades
Your example does not follow the style guide and is an example of when to use digits
Percentages
50%
75%–80%
If you’re a professional writer, you should be following the style guide and this is explicitly spelled out by the APA.
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/numbers/numerals