UA EDITORIAL STYLE MANUAL

Net

An acceptable abbreviation for Internet.

nondiscrimination statements

See equal-opportunity statements.

nondissertation (adj.)

She began nondissertation research this semester.

nonsexist language

See gender-neutral language.

nonthesis (adj.)

She began nonthesis research this semester.

noon

Avoid the redundant 12:00 noon.

numbers

Basic UA style: In running text, spell out numbers zero through nine. Use figures for numbers 10 and above.

We have three cats, nine dogs, and 14 chickens.

To indicate a range, consider using figures and the en dash, rather than a from . . . to construction.

The event is for children 0–5 years of age.
Muriel will choose 12–15 people to accompany her on the trip.

Millions, billions, trillions, etc., are expressed as follows:

one million
two billion
12 billion
$40 trillion

Spell out any number, no matter how large, that begins a sentence (the only exception: calendar years). Consider rewriting the sentence, especially if the number is very large.

Clumsy: One thousand nine hundred twenty-four years ago, a Viking ship sank in that harbor.
Better: A Viking ship sank in that harbor 1,924 years ago.

When spelling out large numbers, consult the examples below for correct hyphenation:

thirty-seven
one hundred thirty-seven
two thousand one hundred thirty-seven
thirty-seven hundred

For ages, use figures or spell out numbers according to UA style (above), unless it is unavoidable that the age begin a sentence or headline. Use hyphens as shown in examples.

a four-year-old boy
a three-month-old baby
A five-year-old won the pie-eating contest.
The building is four years old.
a man in his 20s
a 30-year-old woman
a boy in his teens
a teenage girl
a teenager
a 75-year tradition

For percentages, always use figures unless the number begins a sentence. Use percent instead of the symbol, %, except in places where space is limited.

She took a 5 percent pay cut.
Seven percent raises were offered that year.

For credit hours, use figures no matter how small the number:

EN 101 is a 3-credit-hour course.
Samantha earned 15 hours' credit for her psychology internship. (See apostrophe.)

Use figures for SAT, ACT, and similar test scores. Use Arabic figures in constructions such as SAT-1. Do not add commas to SAT or other scores that reach into the thousands:

His SAT score was 1100.
Her GRE composite score was 2070.

Express most common fractions in words, except in the case of quantities consisting of whole numbers and fractions: 8 1/2-by-11-inch paper.

Express ordinals—first, second, 11th—in figures or words, per UA style. To create the ordinal for a number ending in 1, use st. For a number ending in 2, use nd; 3, rd; 4, th; 5, th; 6, th; 7, th; 8, th; 9, th; and 0, th. No space is needed between the figure and the ordinal letters, and no period is needed after the ordinal letters except at the end of a sentence: 25th, 32nd, 74th, 81st, 100th. See dates for exceptions to these ordinal guidelines.

Use figures for grade point averages, and always include the decimal point and carry to at least one decimal place: 2.0. If several averages are cited in a table, carry all of them to the same place: 3.01, 2.18, 4.00, 1.80. The abbreviation GPA may follow the numbers if they are not described in the rest of the sentence: Sam earned a 3.98 GPA. Mary's GPA was 3.89. His high school GPA was 3.1.

Use figures in tables and charts. In tables and charts that include a total at the bottom, align the decimal points in each column. In other tables and charts, decimal alignment is preferred, but it is acceptable to align all figures along the right margin, particularly if the numbers used are a mixture of percentages, straight figures, and/or fractions.

See also Appendix F: Time Terminology.

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