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I'd say it depends on what those numbers are. Writing "five in the morning" instead of "5am" isn't going to make too much of a difference to readability. In fact, depending on the general tone of y...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-12T21:42:33Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46262 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T12:18:18Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46262 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
I'd say it depends on what those numbers are. Writing "five in the morning" instead of "5am" isn't going to make too much of a difference to readability. In fact, depending on the general tone of your story, that slight bit of extra eloquence can really enhance it.
However, once you get into longer numbers, using the actual numerals _really_ helps with readability. Compare "sixty-five-thousand, five-hundred-and-thirty-six" to its numeric form: 65,536. Even for lesser examples, "The year is twenty-nineteen" isn't as easy for me to parse as "The year is 2019".
The general rule-of-thumb I use is adapted from one I learned in secondary school: if you can write the number as one word ("three", "twelve", "thirty"), then use that word. If it would be a compound word ("twenty-three", "one-hundred-and-eleven"), then use the actual numerals. As Zeiss' answer indicates, though, different people have different tolerances and different limits when it comes to writing out numerals. The best option might be just to experiment until you find a balance you're comfortable with.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-06-26T12:08:53Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 9