Beginning list items with numerals with this beginning list items with numerals with this beginning list items.
Most well-known style guides dictate that numbers should always be spelled out at the beginning of a sentence ( Forty-seven percent of people… ), even to the point of recommending rewriting to avoid spelling out awkwardly large numbers ( In all, 5,260 people… ).
I have a bulleted list of percentages in which I would really like to start all the list item numbers with numerals:
- 12 percent of messages…
- 50 percent of messages…
- 19 percent of messages…
- 4 percent of messages.
Spelling all the numbers out would significantly harm readability. Rewriting to put numbers later would also damage readability, in addition to appearing contrived. I checked my Chicago Manual of Style, but it doesn’t seem to address this particular situation, or at least I haven’t been able to find it.
Are there reliable, widely accepted sources that offer guidance on this point, or is it just too rare to have come up?
How do I know that I too am a female?
Does the rules for bullets follow the rules for sentences? Your bullets are correctly written in my view.
Even Chicago wouldn’t expect recipes to list ingredients as following: Three and
- half cups sugar one hundred and
- fifty grams cocoa one eighth of
- a teaspoon salt. Y’all have to
follow recipe book.
