Lesbian Fiction ForumThe debate about 'eighty-five vs '85 rages on.
The Chicago Manual of Style says this about numbers in general:
9.3 Chicago's General Rule. In non technical contexts, the following are spelled out: whole numbers, from one through one hundred, round numbers, and any number beginning with a sentence. For other numbers, numerals are used.
The examples they give are:
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Thirty-two children from eleven families were packed into three vans.
The property is held on a ninety-nine-year lease.
The building is three hundred years old.
The three new parking lots will provide space for 540 more cars.
The population of our village now stands at 5,893.
Then later, 9.34 says:
The year abbreviated. In informal contexts the first two digits of a particular year are often replaced by an apostrophe (not an opening single quotation mark).
The examples given then are:
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the spirit of '76
the class of '06
One famous writer responded that she would spell the two number year out, using it sparingly in the beginning to get the reader used to it, then using it more further into the book. The reader will then not get thrown out of the book.
Another says that the two number year spelled out just is too awkward for the reader.
Georganna and Sophia shared their thoughts in the comments of my earlier post.
Anyone else want to jump into this discussion?
PS: I just sent the question to what I thought was the Q&A of the CMOS website but realized, just as I hit send, that it was going to the webmaster. Sigh.
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Keywords: RCE Edits, Editing
last modified: 08/16/06 18:05
Paula, surely you must recognize that a year is a date, not just a number. Yes, we're living in zero six, but doesn't that look silly? "Two thousand six" is even worse. Are you just trying to stir up some controversy? One exception, of course, would be in dialogue, where a character (a real character!) might speak of something happening in "ought six" or "back in nineteen hundred and forty-four" because that's the way he or she speaks.
— submitted 8/18/2006 @ 10:39 am
Nope, not this time (re controversy).
I say that in fiction, in a dialogue, that if the writer wants to write "What year is that car? '84?" then it is perfectly legal.
My editor, using her various tools and her immense brain, disagrees. She says the dialogue should read "What year is that car? Eighty-four?"
Then there's the question of
eighty-four vs 'eighty-four
— submitted 8/18/2006 @ 12:33 pm