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-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Neilson
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 7:48 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: What's 1 to do?
> Now as I read articles on the web,
> supposedly professionally written, I come across lonesome digits in
what
> feels like 2 out of every 5 cases. It looks stupid to me. Have the
rules
> changed while I wasn't looking?
I wouldn't be surprised if it's partly a combo of work by non-native
speaking writers, work that may go to non-native speaking readers, or
writing for translations. I sure can identify the digit "5" better than
it's translated form of "five" if I'm going through a mess of translated
files and making sure that the translation magic didn't muck up
anything. If I'm reading something that is not in my native language,
I've got a much better shot at proper understanding if I've got digits
in the text. The digit and the word are equally accurate, so I can see
why some places might decide to change from the old-school style of "one
through ten."
Now we just have to wait for the day, 20 or so years from now, where "4"
has become an acceptable replacement for "for" in professional
writing...
- V
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