When to use numerals vs words
The eternal dilemma: whether to spell out a number in full, or use a numeral.
You have probably been told to write out numbers under fifty. Or twenty. Or one hundred. It varies depending on who you ask. So James has “five dogs” but “2138 stamps”.
This rule is mostly fine. Until you start working with technical content.
In my experience as an accredited editor working across technical writing services and educational material, this is where things start to fall apart.
Why traditional rules fail in technical writing
Technical documents tend to be full of numbers. If you follow the usual rules, you can end up with something like this:
Example (before editing):
There should be five twenty-metre trusses, and five 60-metre trusses. Erecting the five twenty-metre trusses should take approximately 50 minutes (ten minutes per truss) but if you have at least ten people available, this could drop from 50 minutes to only twenty.
The problem is not that anything here is wrong. It is that there are numbers everywhere.
After a while, it becomes difficult to tell which numbers relate to each other.
When reading, your brain tends to group numerals together and written-out numbers together. Even if they have nothing to do with each other. That makes technical content harder to follow than it needs to be.
This is exactly the kind of clarity issue picked up by professional editing services, particularly in technical and instructional documents.
A simple rule for clearer technical documents
As a rule, use numerals for all dimensions, whether they are large or small.
For other numbers, you can still write them out in full, as long as things do not get unwieldy.
This small shift makes relationships between numbers much clearer.
The same example, improved
Example (after editing):
There should be five 20-metre trusses, and five 60-metre trusses. Erecting the five 20-metre trusses should take approximately 50 minutes (10 minutes per truss) but if you have at least ten people available, this could drop from 50 minutes to only 20.
Nothing has changed in meaning.
But it is now much easier to see which numbers belong together.
Why this matters
Good technical writing is not just about accuracy. It is about making information easy to use.
This is where both technical writing services and content design services come into play. The goal is not just to follow rules, but to present information in a way that makes sense to the reader.
If you are unsure whether your document is clear, this is exactly the kind of issue a professional editor in Melbourne can identify quickly.
Final thoughts
If your document is full of numbers, consistency matters more than tradition.
Make related numbers look related. Your reader will thank you for it.
