I am stuck once again on the way something should be written.
In trying to write the next chapter of Get A Life, I am in a bit of a quandry as to how I should write this:
We settled on tea and scones and after Mandy served us, she left Sally and I to catch up on all that had happened in the last twelve hours.
My question is, should I write 12 hours or twelve hours?
I have had this problem before regarding numbers and I am sure that some of you hot shot writers and or editors out there will put me right.
Hugs
Sue
Comments
How about...
... simply 'since we last spoke'?
I say this as a reader, and to say 12 hours and later refer to the conversation you have to remember the fact that it was only Half a day after, for reasons of continuity, also saying the above leaves open other forms of communication that might have been forgoten at this point.
Or you could say the last day, meaning 24 hour period of time, as I know when I was working nights several year ago, I refered to my day as the 24 hour period from when I got up to when I went to bed, yes it confused some people, but that was my day, if that makes sence.
Either way gives a some what sliding scale, and not a rigid block of time.
If You Don't Need to Be, There's No Need to be Specific.
Sometimes a story requires you be very exact and detailed oriented. Other times, it is not. I always found if there is no need to be exact, to nail every last detail down, don't.
First off, people who go into detailed explanations about how something works or what they did gets lost in the weeds. If the details do not move the story forward or have some significance, don't include them, otherwise you'll wind up writing a Tom Clancy story. While a lot of people loved the details, I never found the need to explain how the triggering mechanism of a nuke worked in order to convey to the reader that when it does, it'll absolutely ruin your whole day.
So go with the above recommendation and simply say... 'since we last met,' or 'since our last little chat.'
Nancy Cole
a.k.a. HW Coyle
P.S. In 'Rules for Writers' and the 'Webster's Standard American Style Manual' recommend you spell the time out unless it is very specific or needs more than two words, i.e. Twenty-five vs. 10,125. My editors alway used the rule of thumb that any number over 100 was written numerically.
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
I usually
write numbers in words unless it relates to dates, to to me it would be twelve hours - however this could be why no one reads my stuff.
A ;)
Angharad
The Story is What Matters
There are probably rules somewhere, but to me what matters is the story telling (which both of you are very good at) not the grammar. My recommendation is to do what you prefer.
You are right, CBee
I think you are right, CBee. Especially if it's just choosing whether to write "12" or "twelve." Ultimately, it's just a preference.
In sites like BCTS, most are very tolerant about, ummm, unusual composition styles and grammar mistakes (which i am so very grateful for, as I have committed more than my share of questionable compositon and grammar mistakes lol).
However, I think there is a tipping point where composition and grammar errors start affecting the story-telling, and the quality of the reading experience. For me, if there are far too many of these, I end up stopping my reading altogether, even if the story itself is intriguing and interesting.
I suppose there is a fine line between readabie and not-readable. And knowing where that is is tricky. So I guess it doesn't hurt to be as correct as you can possibly be.
So I suppose it doesn't hurt to try and fix one's grammar when one can, or to solicit the help of a proofreader and an editor, if both are available. (my own proofreader-and-editor-of-choice was Holly Hart - she did both very well, indeed)
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Is it a number or a word?
It's always worth asking that question when trying to work out which to use. If, say, you paid only $12 for something, the number is important, since someone else might have paid $13 and that's important to your meaning.
In the case you mention, the number could just as easily be ten hours or fourteen - it makes very little difference to the meaning of your sentence, so you use the word.
Sue, But You Aren't !
Nobody other than you could ever get away with describing you as that ! IMHO you should not either - you write some of the best stories on BCTS, as your considerable fan club following will agree with me about, so please do not put yourself down like that. Please? With cream and strawberries on ?
Love,
Briar
Lots of Good Advice
Puddintane has lots of blog entries about writing rules. If you go to her author page, click on the "on writing" link at the bottom and then look for an entry for using numbers. She's quite thorough so you should find everything you'll ever need in that blog entry.
- Terry
Susan -- You Rule
Time of day is usually spelled out. However, in your example it would appear "twelve" is correct for the general rule that those numbers under 101 are spelled out (Per Nancy).
The Chicago Manual of Style says, "It is difficult if not impossible to be entirely consistent in the treatment of numbers in textual matter. As soon as one thinks one has arrived at a simple rule for handling some category of numbers, exceptions begin to appear. . .."
You do such a beautiful job communicating with your readers. It's simply twelve of one or a dozen of another.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
IMHO
Write the word. And it is "...left Sally and me...", as 'me' is an object in the sentence.
Twelve
I'd go with "twelve" here. It's a nice, venerable, one-syllable word, doesn't need hyphens, and we're not writing text messages, are we?
If you want to be cuter, you could even go with something like, "...not a dozen hours ago."
Anyway, I couldn't care less how you structure your grammar and which style-book you follow, or ignore. I LOVE your stories. Just tell them.
Three things
1) Why not 'half a day'
2) Whatever you write, I'll read
3) Susans are all brilliant people
S.
Not a big quandary at all
It's not that big of a quandary.
Many will have different styles to say the same thing. For me, I think I would say it this way:
"After settling on tea and scones, and Mandy had served us, Sally and I caught up on everything that had happened since yesterday."
- or "since midnight" or "since last night" or "since this morning" - whatever you were referring to when you say 12 hours.
I noticed that my favorite professional writers prefer not to use numerics. I don't think that's a rule, however (if it is, someone please correct me). So, if you want to be precise and say the elapsed hours instead of my suggestion, i think writing "twelve hours" would look nicer.
To read my Family Girl Blogs, click this link -
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/28818/family-girl-blogs
To read my old Working Girl Blogs, click this link -
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs
To read all of my blogs, click this link -
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/bobbie-c
To read my stories in BCTS, click this link -
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14775/roberta-j-cabot
To see my profile and know more about me, click this link -
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/user/bobbie-c
FWIW...
...I was taught that the AP Stylebook -- the U.S. newspaper "standard" -- calls for spelling out all numbers between zero and nine and using numerals for 10 and above.
It always seemed to me that ten, eleven and twelve should have been spelled out as well, since the combining forms don't actually start until 13. But that's not how they did it.
No idea if the "rules" are different in the U.K.
Eric
The only hard and fast rule
The only hard and fast rule that I'm aware of is 'don't mix letters and numbers'.
If you start with one, stick with it. You don't want to say '6 of one and half a dozen of the other'. (or worse, "six of one, and 1/2 of 12 of the other" )
That's the only true 'rule' I know about, and it's common sense. Which means it's ignored a lot :)
I agree with prior posters, however; if the exact number isn't critical, leave it out and go with a general sense of time. Despite what the metric system fanatics say, people work with what is comfortable for them, not what is exact.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.