Don’t use “over” or “under” to describe amounts. Use “more than” and “less than” (if the amount is a quantity or percentage) or “fewer than” (if the amount is a number/plural count noun).
Currency
- When referring to amounts of money, use a singular verb.
- Do not use unnecessary zeroes.
- Don’t use periods in national currency designations.
- Hyphenate millions of dollars when part of a compound modifier.
- Capitalize currency abbreviations.
- Omit periods for currency abbreviations.
- Repeat the use of the $ symbol when referencing a range of currency (e.g., $200-$300).
- Use the word “to” to communicate range in currency when referenced in body copy, a dash is acceptable in tables, charts or infographics.
Examples:
- $7 (not $7.00), $65 CAD, $52 USD, $2,900 to $6,500 (body copy), $150-$350 (tables or infographics).
- More than $5 million was raised for the fund for writers.
- Construction of the $70-million building.
- The $33-million donation.
View the ISO 4217 Currency Codes to see international currency designations.
Numbers
- Spell out all numbers from one to nine; use figures for any number 10 or above, except at the beginning of a sentence. This includes ordinal numbers: first, 1st; 20th, not twentieth, unless it’s an official title or data point. Exception: numerical digits are fine when numbers one to nine are used in PowerPoint, designed collateral (e.g., posters, banners, infographics, data points, facts and figures, etc.) to enhance readability.
- The use of ordinals is fine in referencing a title or
proper name. Do not use superscript in ordinals (e.g., 20th, not 20th). - Use figures for decimals or compound fractions.
- Numbers in the millions should be written out as a combination of words and figures.
- Use figures in sequences such as chapters, acts of a play, school grades, highways, etc.
- Use figures in ordered lists.
Examples:
- Unit 12
- first-year students
- teams of 16
- 20 million people
- 6 1/2 weeks to go
- more than $4.5 million in sales
- children in Grade 4
- Act 2, Scene 3 of Hamlet
- 4.o academic course units, eight courses
Per cent
- Per cent should be written as two words.
- You can use the per cent symbol (i.e., %) in presentations, pictures and designed collateral (e.g., infographics, tables, images, data points, posters) when it helps enhance readability and clarity. Do not use symbols in body copy or long-form copy.
Note: The per cent symbol is allowed when averages and grades are referenced in Waterloo’s academic calendars. - Do not repeat the per cent word or symbol when sharing a percentage range.
Examples: 75-98% (table or infographic),
75 to 98 per cent (body copy). - To avoid ambiguity, write increased to 15 per cent from 10 (not increased from 10 to 15 per cent).
Examples: six per cent, 15 percentage points, five per cent increase (no hyphens).
