Copyediting Quiz: Numbers

You know what likes to hang out in fiction and creative nonfiction?

Numbers.

Which is fine, except you have to know how to style them. Do you spell them out? Hyphenate? Capitalize? Eek – italicize? Good lord . . . what about decimals??

As the copyeditor or proofreader, it’s your job to know, and to add the rules you’ve followed, and examples from the manuscript, to the style sheet.

Luckily, chapter 9 of The Chicago Manual of Style is all about the treatment of numbers, and Amy J. Schneider’s The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction also has excellent guidance.

The twenty exercises below will test your knowledge of how to treat numbers in fiction and creative nonfiction. Scroll to the bottom to see the answers.

 Ready? 

Copyediting Quiz: Numbers, Part A

Supply the correctly styled number for each of these sentences:

1. Dark chocolate with ___________ cocoa solids has positive effects on your health, with a small risk. (72%)
2. She looked right at me and said, “You’re ___________ wrong.” (98%)
3. The girl was ___________. Her mother was ___________. (5′7″, 6′1″)
4. Pippin ate fully ___________ of the hamburger. (2/5ths)
5. He holstered the ___________ revolver. (38 caliber)
6. ___________ dalmatians? That’s a lot of dalmatians. (101)
7. ___________ was not what anyone expected. (the year 2020)
8. You should give up your seat on the subway for the ___________ lady with a cane. (the lady is 95 years old)
9. There are between ___________ and ___________ billion stars in the observable universe. (9-1/2, 10)
10. You’d say ___________ to mean half past ten in the morning. (10:30) (This one has two right answers.)

Copyediting Quiz: Numbers, Part B

How would you fix the following sentences? (Not every sentence has an error.)

1. “What is this, crazy story #2?”
2. There was a gap in the wall of more than one-and-a-half inches.
3. Her grandmother sent her a check for $50 for her birthday.
4. What on earth does a two-hundred-dollar T-shirt look like?
5. “You know what else I regret, besides my hairstyle in my 20s?”
6. I can’t believe my son is in the class of ‘30.
7. There are some fantastic swimming holes along Route One Hundred.
8. Of the people who took the taste test, sixty-five liked the first soda, 109 liked the second choice, and 339 preferred the third.
9. I had a beautiful penthouse apartment in New York City, high atop the city, which my second wife is enjoying now, and a nice mansion in Beverly Hills, which Mrs. #1 is occupying with her 3rd husband.
10. Opening to page 51, huge photo of the large cat, hanging out of a tree, front legs dangling down, face looking square into the camera.

Copyediting Quiz: Numbers, Part A

Answers

1. Dark chocolate with 72 percent cocoa solids has positive effects on your health, with a small risk.

• Use the numeral but spell out “percent”; CMOS 18 9.20.

2. She looked right at me and said, “You’re ninety-eight percent wrong.”

• Spell out “ninety-eight percent” because it’s in dialogue; Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction, pp. 171–172.

3. The girl was five feet three. Her mother was six one.

• CMOS 18 7.96, section 1, number + noun.

4. Pippin ate fully two-fifths of the hamburger.

• Simple fractions are spelled out and take hyphens; CMOS 18 9.15.

5. He holstered the .38-caliber revolver.

• Use numerals and omit the zero from firearm calibers; CMOS 18 9.21.

6. One hundred and one dalmations? That’s a lot of dalmations.

• Spell out because it begins a sentence, even though it’s more than a hundred; CMOS 18 9.5. (Note the inclusion of “and” in “one hundred and one,” contra CMOS‘s preference, because it’s a familiar phrase.)

7. 2020 was not what anyone expected.

• A year at the beginning of a sentence doesn’t need to be spelled out; CMOS 18 9.31.

8. You should give up your seat on the subway for the ninety-five-year-old lady with a cane.

• Use hyphens because “ninety-five-year-old” modifies “lady”; Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction p. 61.

9. There are between 9.5 and 10 billion stars in the observable universe.

• Because it’s a fractional quantity in the millions/billions, express “9.5” with a decimal, and then use a numeral for “10” for consistency; CMOS 18 9.9.

10. You’d say “ten thirty in the morning” or “10:30 a.m.” to mean half past ten in the morning.

• CMOS 18 10.46.

Copyediting Quiz: Numbers, Part B

Answers

1. “What is this, crazy story #2?”

Edit: “What is this, crazy story number two?”

• Spell out numbers under a hundred. Spell out “number” instead of using a symbol.

2. There was a gap in the wall of more than one-and-a-half inches.

Edit: There was a gap in the wall of more than one and a half inches.

• There are no hyphens in “one and a half” because it’s a count with a unit of measure; it’s not modifying “inches.” (For some reason, authors often use hyphens with counts!)

3. Her grandmother sent her a check for $50 for her birthday.

Edit: Her grandmother sent her a check for fifty dollars for her birthday.

• Spell out amounts of money that are whole numbers of a hundred or less; CMOS 18 9.22.

4. What on earth does a two-hundred-dollar T-shirt look like?

Edit: What on earth does a $200 T-shirt look like?

• Use numerals for sums of money more than one hundred dollars; CMOS 18 9.26.

5. “You know what else I regret, besides my hairstyle in my 20s?”

Edit: “You know what else I regret, besides my hairstyle in my twenties?”  

• Spelled-out numbers form their plurals as other nouns; CMOS 18 9.53.

6. I can’t believe my son is in the class of ‘30.

Edit: I can’t believe my son is in the class of ’30.

• Use an apostrophe, not an opening single quotation mark; CMOS 18 9.32.

7. There are some fantastic swimming holes along Route One Hundred.

Edit: There are some fantastic swimming holes along Route 100.

• Highways are designated by arabic numerals; CMOS 18 9.52.

8. Of the people who took the taste test, sixty-five liked the first soda, 109 liked the second choice, and 339 preferred the third choice.

Edit: Of the people who took the taste test, 65 liked the first soda, 109 liked the second choice, and 339 preferred the third choice.

• Use numerals for “65” to maintain consistency with the higher numbers; CMOS 18 9.7

9. I had a beautiful penthouse apartment in New York City, high atop the city, which my second wife is enjoying now, and a nice mansion in Beverly Hills, which Mrs. #1 is occupying with her 3rd husband.

Edit: I had a beautiful penthouse apartment in New York City, high atop the city, which my second wife is enjoying now, and a nice mansion in Beverly Hills, which Mrs. Number One is occupying with her third husband.

• Spell out ordinals as you would arabic numerals; CMOS 18 9.6.

10. Opening to page 51, huge photo of the large cat, hanging out of a tree, front legs dangling down, face looking square into the camera.

No edits – this is correct: Use numerals for numbers referring to pages, chapters, parts, volumes, and other divisions of a book; CMOS 18 9.28.