Expressing Numbers APA

Expressing Numbers: APA

Use Numerals for the Following:

1. Numbers below ten involved in comparisons with larger numbers and instances of the same item later in the paragraph, e.g., Halu asked 5 of the 10 hockey players to help him pick up a girl. The 5 pretended to attack him to gain her sympathy. When she later rejected his advances, he pounded three beers. (Beers and hockey players were not being compared.) [See the APA manual,* 3.42b, p. 123]

2. Numbers immediately preceding units of measurement, e.g., 2 cm [See the APA manual, 3.42c, p. 123]

3. Numbers that represent mathematical functions, percentages, ratios, percentiles, quartiles, and decimal quantities, e.g., multiplied/divided by 7, a standard deviation of .55, a ratio of 20:1, 9% of the participants, the 3rd percentile/quartile, and 5 times as large (BUT repeated the task five times) [See the APA manual, 3.42d, p. 124]

4. Numbers representing time; dates; ages; sample, subsample, or population sizes; specific quantities of subjects or participants in an experiment; scores and points on a scale; exact sums of money; and numerals as numerals, e.g., in 3 weeks, the 4-year-old girl, scored 2 on a 5-point Likert scale, 2 hrs 55 mins, by 2:50 p.m., 8 participants (BUT three researchers), paid $5 each, January 5, 2001, 5 rats, and 0 represents extreme dislike [See the APA manual, 3.42e, p. 124]

5. Numbers that denote a specific place in a numbered series, parts of books and tables, and each number in a list of four or more numbers, e.g., grade 6 (BUT the sixth grade); on page 2; Table 4; Trial 5; in row 3; Figure 2; and 1, 5, 7, and 9 words, respectively [See the APA manual, 3.42f, p. 125]

6. All numbers in the abstract [See the APA manual, 3.42g, p. 125]

Use Words for the Following:

1. Numbers below ten that do not represent precise measurements or are grouped for comparison with other numbers below ten [See 3.43a, p. 125-6]

2. Any number that begins a sentence [See the APA manual, 3.42c, p. 126]

3. Common fractions [See the APA manual, 3.42d, p. 126]

4. Instances of universally accepted usage, e.g., The Twelve Apostles, The Ten Commandments [See the APA manual, 3.43e, p. 127], Luther's Ninety-Five Theses [See the Chicago Manual,** 8.115, p. 352], and all constitutional amendments (e.g., the Fifth Amendment and the Nineteenth Amendment [See the Chicago Manual, 9.32, p. 388]

Use Words and Numerals for the Following:

1. Rounded large numbers (one million and above), e.g., approximately 5 million [See the APA manual, 3.44a, p. 127]

2. Back-to-back modifiers, e.g., three 5-point scales [See the APA manual, 3.44b, p. 127]

* 5th edition

** 15th edition