How to write about numbers correctly

Writing about numbers is one of the most important – yet trickiest – skills for any communications pro. It’s easy to get lost in strings of overly-specific numbers, misleading statistics and other pitfalls.

So let’s brush up on some of these basic number writing skills, courtesy of that communicators’ Bible, the AP Stylebook. As always, adjust based on your in-house rules.

It’s tempting to write out every decimal to five places and shove every digit into one paragraph. But unless you’re working on an earnings report, ESG or other communique that requires specificity for legal reasons, aim for clarity over maximum precision. In most cases, it’s OK to round to a whole number, especially if it’s an item like a percentage. You also want to try to limit  the proximity between numbers in prose, lest your writing become a soup of digits. AP recommends keeping it to eight to 10 in a single paragraph, but read it for yourself and decide what makes sense for your audience.

Two-thirds, 2/3, two-in-three and 66% are all ways of describing the same number. Don’t be afraid to find synonyms for numbers just as you would for words that are becoming monotonous. Some formulations also can make numbers seem more real – for instance, saying that three out of four dentists prefer this toothpaste makes it more concrete than saying 75%.