The rules for writing numbers vary by academic discipline. While numbers are not a special focus in standard prose, they are in technical, scientific, or medical texts. Numbers written as numerals emphasize quantity more clearly than numbers spelled out as words. However, as the CBE Manual points out, » guidelines for representing numbers may occasionally collide with the realities of some documents. When common sense or editorial judgment says a guideline is a poor choice

For centuries, punctuation served as a rhetorical device guiding the reader on when to stop or pause when reciting a text. In the late 17th century, the rhetorical uses of punctuation were gradually replaced with its logical functions in written prose, scientific literature, and mathematical expressions. The guiding principle in using punctuation marks (as in much of the remainder of communication) is that, when the need for a mark is unclear, it should only be used if it red