Numbers. Numbers and punctuation

The content of these guidelines is taken from the Vives University Network’s Interuniversity Style Guide for Writing Institutional Texts, an interuniversity project in which the UPC participated with the support of the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Government of Catalonia.

• Numbers and decimal points
  
• Numbers and commas
• Numbers and hyphens
  

Numbers and decimal points

• Use a point, not a comma, before a decimal.
  
  

  0.25

  5.5

Numbers and commas

• In numbers of one thousand or more, use commas between groups of three digits, counting from the right.
  
  

  2,436

  32,548

  83,200,000

• Do not use commas in serial numbers such as page numbers, street numbers and years.
  
  

  All further enquiries should be made at our office at 1558 Brunswick Avenue, New York City.

Numbers and hyphens

• Hyphenate numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine.
  
  

  Three hundred and forty-six students are enrolled in the School of Fine Art.

• Spell out numbers that are joined to a word by a hyphen, except in the case of set phrases such as 24-hour clock.
  
  

  A five-year period

  A one-week holiday

• When two numbers appear side by side, spell one of them out. If one of them occurs alongside a unit of measurement, make that one a numeral.
  
  

  four 6-week periods

  thirty-six 20-cent coins