Good day and good night should be made separate words, except when used as qualifiers of a following noun, as in good-night kiss, good-day greeting. a-fishing apple-tree APPROVED COMPOUNDS charter-party fellow-student counting-house first-born arm-chair church-goer first-fruits imposing-stone pew-owner text-book judgment-day purchase-money text-writer knight-errant rent-charge title-page Compound words often cause over-wide spacing, but the gaps so made may be modified by putting a thin space on each side of the hyphen. A compound word within a line of capital letters should have an en dash to mark the compound; but when it has to be divided at the end of a line, the hyphen should be used. FIGURES AND NUMERALS A RABIC FIGURES are not always to be repeated in' type as written in the manuscript copy. In the descriptive text of a standard book numbers but occasionally presented are more pleasing in words. Figures should be avoided as much as possible for all numbers but those of dates. Yet there are limits to the rule, for many writings compel a free use of arabic figures. FIGURES PREFERRED IN COMMERCIAL PRINTING When and where to substitute figures for words cannot be determined by an inflexible rule. If the compositor finds this statement in his copy, the height of the statue is 8 ft. 11 in., he may put it in type in many ways. If it is to appear in Words preferred in formal writings 77 an auctioneer's catalogue, or in an advertisement where compactness is desired, he may repeat it exactly as written, using figures and abbreviations for feet and inches. If it is for a more carefully printed trader's pamphlet or circular, he may use figures, but he should spell out the words feet and inches; if it is for the descriptive text of a good book, the words eight feet and eleven inches should be preferred. This substitution of words for figures is a hazard, but the compositor may assume, when space is limited and brevity is sought, that figures and abbreviations will be preferred. WORDS PREFERRED IN FORMAL WRITINGS When great precision of statement is desired, as is customary in legal documents and in many other kinds of formal writing, figures and abbreviations should never be used where there is abundance of space. Words should be preferred for the statements of whole numbers in simple sentences: The basket held twenty apples. The engine has one hundred horse-power. In ordinary newspaper and job work numbers of infrequent recurrence should be in words. Even 1 The principal exception to this rule is to be found in the composition of tables in which the compactness of figures aids the reader in making a comparison of amounts. 78 Uniformity of expression when the numbers are large but not too frequent, words are to be preferred if space will permit. The regiment consisted of ten hundred and fortyeight men. The returns showed twenty-nine killed, forty-four wounded, and twenty-six missing. In ordinary description the expression of numbers by hundreds is preferred to that by thousands: twenty-eight hundred and sixty is a more approved phrase than two thousand eight hundred and sixty. In legal documents a contrary method prevails : dates always appear by thousands, and spelled-out words are obligatory for measurements, values, and their fractions in every form. UNIFORMITY OF EXPRESSION TO BE MAINTAINED When space is limited, and numbers appear in every sentence and are complex, calling for many digits, spelled-out words are a hindrance and of no benefit to the reader. The information intended will be more quickly discerned by figures, which must be regarded as proper when they really help the reader. Yet it is not becoming to put figures in one chapter or paragraph and not in another. Uniformity of style should be maintained throughout. It is better to give slight offence by an apparently pedantic precision in one paragraph than to give greater offence by varying the style in different paragraphs to the confusion of the reader. |