This past week we were told at the university that each student would receive four (4) tickets for guests at graduation. Ever (ever). Intelligence tests (e.g., the Stanford-Binet) are no longer widely used. The purpose of writing is not so much efficiency as communication. The style guide gives these examples: The style manual also notes that you can use parentheses as delimiters for letters or numbers in a list or outline, as well as in academic uses including parenthetical references to a list of works cited. This morning I encountered one of the dumbest applications of numbers-in-parentheses that I have ever seen. The point…there are a lot of people in the world today that are stupid or the writer needs to make sure they understand what they are reading. I bet most people wouldn’t write this. Such as Two (2) 50 Ton Air Conditioning Units, which could be mistaken for Two 250 Ton Air Conditioning Units (Which would be written as Two (2) 250 Ton Air Conditioning Units). Since I don’t plan to defraud anyone by changing his memos, it would be nice if he simply stopped doing this. The flipside of that is that only a moron would not double check their numbers for accuracy. If redundancy in numbers is important, can’t redundancy be important in other things? You’re very welcome and I thank you back for having that blog! )”, 3. I follow the style of Chicago on numbers, typing them as words from one to ten, then I switch to numerals. Navigating 'introvert hell': You don't have to be hard-charging to be an impactful legal networker, Redacting confidential client information: The devil is in the details, How to mindfully navigate a career transition, Is jargon a 'perversion of language'? Example: “My friend Shivaun (who sometimes spells her name Siobhan) has founded a group of Ireland-loving lawyers.” Second, they can enclose a clarifying appositive or attribution. I agree that when we write checks we put the number into words also. You all as lawyers should surely understand this. (Do not do this. And some airports write “Gate 01” instead of “Gate 1”. Are you more likely to make a mistake writing the numbers our in words, or just putting them in Arabic numerals? I have laughed three (2) times since I received your comment. You can find similar lists of synonyms in wills, where you never simply “leave” your property to your heirs, but instead do something like “give, devise and bequeath” the property. Differing opinions, followed by the writing your future. I agree that your system makes those numbers stand out a bit. Thanks for another good article. Having worked in the legal field for 27 years, I’ve seen it a lot. Saved by the wire (and the fiber-optic cable). Hypocritical, but I bet I’m correct on that one (1). Bummer. He complimented me on the work, but asked why I had written the numbers out in letters and then in numerals. Here is the story I heard on why this got started…. 3. Today we know that parentheses have five primary uses and brackets three. But when a fade happened during the transmission of numbers, the operator could never be sure of copying the intended digit correctly, or if some digits of a larger number were missing. which I am being told is the proper usage. It will continue to provide a contrasting point of view. Typewriters (and I’m old enough to have used them, even non-electric ones! I like your suggestion as to the roots of the word (number) boilerplate process. Too often we resort to saying that things are done because the lawyers require it. I’m pleased that you are making your employee handbook better. Today it seems unusual, so I’ll break the habit. If the context called for it, of course. Yes, I am sure you’re right. Usually, encl… Can everyone just stop this nonsense? I did meet some nice girls in that class, though! My! Since the quantity may end up being 11 or more, it is indeterminate which number format should be used in the final document. Back in the days before typewriters, everything was handwritten. The rule should be …. needs duplicated words-and-digits, then do that. You use parentheses in specific situations that can be covered by a few simple guidelines. Building Blocks for Fiction Writing, Appearance is everything – 5 tips for making your writing look good visually, Writing Resources for Naming Your Characters, Creative Writing Prompts About Social Issues, Parentheses should be formatted in the same font as the surrounding text rather than the text within the parentheses (, If a parenthetical statement is included at the end of a sentence, the terminal punctuation marks go after the closing parenthesis (like this). If Two (2) 50 Ton Air Conditioning Units are going to be installed first, and Two (2) 250 Ton Air Conditioning Units are going to be installed two weeks later; there is no need to specify two (2) weeks later. A lot of people in this industry do similar things (some do the double numbers, as discussed), and I never thought to question it, but stumbled upon this post and it intrigued me. I don’t know if that explanation is true, but it is a bit of legal history/lore that was passed down to me. In this problem, you would calculate the operation within the parentheses first, even if it is an operation that would normally come after the other operations in the problem. The other 99% are people trying to appear smarter than they are by repeating a practice they saw elsewhere. All Right Reserved, The Letter "Z" Will Be Removed from the English Alphabet. If you use the numbers in only one way, you won’t have an inconsistency, and you have no need for the rule of interpretation. Quote every little snippet you can, even a three-word phrase that requires two bracketed alterations: “An action may be ‘[d]ismiss[ed] in whole [or in part] without [a] [c]ourt order[].’ ” Legions of legal writers would rather say that than paraphrase: “The court may dismiss an action in whole or in part without order,” followed by a citation. Treat parentheses or brackets and the words inside them as separate from the rest of the sentence. So a sign that says, “You are allowed three (3) pieces of luggage.”, knowing just the word luggage (or having a picture on the sign) and seeing the (3) is enough to piece it together. Ok, that second reason is highly subjective, but, in my opinion, the overuse of both em dashes and parentheses make a document look ugly. It would be awkward to see a set of numerals at the beginning of a sentence. After all, people (y’all) do make mistakes (errors) writing (typing) those too (also). @Francoise: Never. The only scenario where adding the number provides clarity is one in which the text is already correct. Let me go to the ATM machine and give you my PIN number. I am reading this because it also drives me crazy, and while I have an “explanation” for it, I wondered if there was a different (possibly more accurate) one. What’s really annoying about these is not so much that the writer thinks we (the readers) are dumb but that they have so confidently and so thoughtlessly proceeded with their ridiculous approach. This would work too. When a fade happened during a letter of a word (with several DAHs and DITs per letter), one could usually figure out the garbled letter or letters from the context of the word or sentence. I like to ramble on with diaries writing and felt uncomfortable writing digit in my text. . I think it’s a bit harsh to say only a moron would say to never make a mistake. Can’t tell you why anybody else would. I have not read through all the comments, but here is the answer. I.e., if the writer had bad hand writing, the digits were good measure that everyone would have the same interpretation. I stumbled across your blog (short for web-log—why don’t we spell it “’blog”?) I (Brian) agree (believe) that you have made me laugh (chuckle). Do they think we’re stupid? I am getting married, and in my correspondence with my vendors, I write out single digit numbers, followed by the numeral in parentheses. Aviation manuals never use two forms, even though a transposition of digits or being “off” by one number could be the difference between life and death, in countless different ways. The lazy legal writer, having long since forgotten how to write real paragraphs, thinks the ideal brief or motion contains a maximal number of words from authoritative sources and a minimal number from himself or herself. Why does my department chair say things in his memos like, “We’ll be meeting with two (2) members of the committee tomorrow.”. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and I searched around the Interwebs a bit to find the source of the style, and it seems to be based in legal terminology, though even that seems specious. Instead, use the Chicago Manual of Style technique. Meanwhile, iPad reading has now made it easier than ever to flick over pages that never actually get read. Also, computers that print “01” instead of “1” do so sometimes purely due to programmers who think “01” is more correct; and so the cycle perpetuates. Okay, so I don’t know if they did that double-number thing for all numbers, or just those with the number one involved. Its not fool proof, as nothing is, but for the fools responding saying they are offended by such a practice are exactly that, foolish. We figured five sets, which total 2000 Amps, using 900 MCM Alum.” But above all, remember that writing is for communication. I also agree with the various professional responses (architect, legal professional, and medical professionals who responded)–bth *paradigms* are acceptable. There is no law that says that you have to put numbers (numbers) in parentheses, nor is there any law that says that you have to assume that people don’t know their numbers. “The confirmation letter is due within thirty (30) days.”. I doubt most of the complainers on here only list the numbers. (This is an example. So when there is alot of money on the line for a single word, as it is in construction, generally in contracts it is done this way. Not one of my thousands of readers ever complained about my habit, or attempted to correct me; so I suppose the expression didn’t confuse them. Although this raises the issue that one should really be “disemplaning” — cf. You may be right, but by your own testimony you prefer to follow the Chicago Manual of Style, so “three” is more appropriate. And it showed all citations interspersed in the body of practitioner materials. Peace, love this article! for $11.70 Free. English is not my mother tongue and I had never even heard of the em dash, or any other dash, for that matter. They skim instead, trying to get the lawyer’s drift. Aidan’s comments are greatly appreciated. Latin had a lot of respect…. I think it’s stupid and don’t understand it. However, you How To Use Parentheses In An Essay don’t need to worry about it because you can simply seek our essay writing help through our essay writer service. @Precise. As Brian pointed out, what if it says ten (11)? We all make mistakes, but we make mistakes in both words and numbers. This at least makes the repetition easier to deal with. How is the lawyer known as 'Popehat' on Twitter keeping busy during the pandemic? Note: Sometimes, only the close parenthesis is used in this format. (I am so tempted to put a “9” after the word, but I’ll refrain from it!). Biographer Hank Wagner quoted the British author in "Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman" explaining why he is a fan of these curved punctuation marks: Gaimen may feel blessed when the author offers him a "personal" aside, but other writers say that parentheses may be a clue that the sentence is becoming contorted. are already known and have become a nuisance, visually. We had a better system — getting it right and not duplicating information as an excuse for sloppiness. In the days before copies, that saved typing time, but by then a single numeral could be illegible. Just use the numbers, and ditch the parentheses. Numbers from one to ten should be written-out as words. Typically, the words inside the parentheses provide extra information about something else in the sentence. “The country’s import and export levels are regulated by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).”. In any case, this is another way to show that example: My brother[em dash]you met him last night[em dash]is an opera singer. Parentheses (as with other punctuation marks) can be tricky to use until you understand a few simple rules: Adding additional information: June Casagrande, author of "The Best Punctuation Book, Period. Just one correction: Chicago’s rule is to spell out numbers from zero to one hundred (see 9.2), not just from one to ten like you mentioned. I came to this blog really searching for when to spell a number or use its arabic form. That’s why us lawyers do it, at least. The only result that’s likely from the double entry method is that someone occasionally mistypes the digit, in which case they’ve only added confusion, not confidence. An introspective lawyer or judge who thinks about it will immediately realize how different it is to “read” a brief and to read a good article in The Atlantic. Case in point…I am writing some instructions for a product. All the practitioner materials were typeset in Courier, suggesting that this abominable typeface was somehow preferred. Delimiters for letters or numbers in a list: The Chicago Manual of Style says you should put parentheses around each number or letter in a list, as in these examples: In-text citations/reference information: The Chicago Manual calls them parenthetical citations, while the American Psychological Association (which sets APA style) calls them in-text citations. My sixty-five years of written communication have covered handwriting, cursive, type-writers, printing, publishing, engineering drawings, dot-matrix printing, etc. It’s unnecessary and dumb. So when people ask: “Has legal writing gotten worse in recent years?” you can answer yes without suspecting that you’re just being an old fogey. Apologies for not replying sooner. Thank you all for your comments. I wonder how many people spell out large numbers and then put the numerals in parentheses. You made my day! I think the argument about needing the dual usage because of the possibility of making typos is asinine. (Items listed in parentheses are desirable but not essential. Anyway, because using the letter as the number could be confusing, they both spelled 10 and wrote the Arabic number, and put one of them in parentheses–I forget which. I don’t have my Chicago manual here, but my memory is that they recommend putting numbers from zero to ten as words, and numerals after that. In places like airports there are people that don’t know the language well but use the same Arabic numeral system. He said that later with radio teletype, characters occasionally got garbled due to radio interference, too. I agree with Mr. Curmudgeon regarding informal emails. I don’t even entirely buy the argument that it should be done because numbers can be extremely important, even critical. ), As with most other punctuation marks, parentheses should not appear back to back. This prevents the two numerals from being mistaken as one number. Bibliography. If the parties end up disputing the number in a legal action, the number as it is written out is that one that controls. told the truth.”. Using Brackets in Quotes You may have seen the expression [ sic] used in a quote and wondered what it was all about. We can’t make every sign a fun little rebus, otherwise misinterpretation would be prevalent. @Precise: thanks for sharing your thoughts, your comments are very helpful as well. Aiden, be careful though… here’s a cautionary tale. However, for the interest of this specific topic – K.G. Your email address will not be published. Today, with a Word document, a 7 never looks like a 9. Gosh! I’m not sure who couldn’t understand that for themselves, only a moron would respond with “why can’t you just make sure you never, ever, EVER make a mistake?!”. You also start the parenthetical sentence with a lowercase letter (i) because it is still considered part of the overall sentence and not a separate statement. I’m not sure who, what, or where the directive to do that came from, because (65) years of instruction is difficult to filter through. We’ve come a long way, no doubt. No, I really am!”. That way, the reader wouldn’t have to go look up every case cited to understand why it had been cited. It is not that you are stupid it is called CYA (covering your ass). Both parens (as they’re informally called) and brackets present some pesky problems for legal writers, even when “correctly” used. I have no hard evidence for this, but I suspect the numerals in parenthesis are a hang over from handwritten documents, in which it would have been easy to misinterprete the written word, particularly in legal documents (hence the inertia of the legal profession maybe?). The disagreement between Johns and Evans (its origins have been discussed elsewhere) ultimately destroyed the organization. ), If you need to embed parenthetical material, use regular parentheses on the outside and use square brackets inside. I have on occasion seen it reach a level of ridiculousness. Although, I am a pretty laid back bride (just ask my groomzilla), and the vendors and their staff seem a little, too, discombobulated for my own comfort. So much for the “well-wisher of children” who thought in 1680 that correct uses of brackets could be inferred from looking at lots of examples. Recently, I received an e-mail from a friend where he ONLY put the numeral in the e-mail, but he still put it within parentheses. According to this (many years deceased) partner, the practice originated in England in the Middle Ages, when lawyers, along with maybe clergy, were the only people who could read and write. Neil Gaiman really likes parentheses. I accept your response, but still argue that it’s largely unnecessary for normal writing and reading to repeat the numbers. Most other cases I completely agree with you. from the link Jennifer Bell at ProSoft put up. I don’t know when I started doing it or if I even picked it up anywhere. There’s not a number sequence that you pronounce the same way. “We went [to the new dinosaur exhibit] and had a great time.”. When you’re looking at a long list of chemicals in a dense protocol, you’ve already looked at the name of the chemical and where it is located. “Writing Services” As I Parentheses In Writing Essays have already had some bad experiences with writing services, I asked 6DollarEssay.com to provide me with a draft of the work. Though the word district is parenthetical, it might be important in helping a non-French-speaking reader understand the sentence. I’ve even seen pages numbered 001, 002. So if the parties agreed to a purchase price of $153,000, but it was typed out mistakenly as $15300, that would be a big difference. I’ve always understood it to clarify or confirm the quantity of something rated with a number, especially in engineering and technical writing. I would think the construction of “en-” + “planed” would be *emplaned, being a nasal-labial assimilation similar to “embarked” (being the same action for a bark / ship). To ensure computers order their dates correctly in, say, file names, good practice writes numbers in those file names with the maximum number of digits they’ll ever have (i.e. It is also the most-commented blog I have posted with 75 comments. I say it’s dumb (dumb), and it’s time to stop doing it (it). “Stay at the warung (wah-ROONG) near the mosque.”, 12. Typically they are titles and used by many in the department. Now for the three uses of brackets. Another lawyer here. Without knowing that I was apparently following the Chicago Manual of Style, that’s essentially my practice. The area code in a phone number or a unit in a mathematical or logical expression: 15. What if it says: Place Ten (11) mg. of ricin in the subject’s coffee? There are people trying to appear smarter than they are titles and used by many in the body of materials. Were typeset in Courier, suggesting that this abominable typeface was somehow preferred have used them, even ones. 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Export levels are regulated by the writing your future i thank you for... Tempted to put a “ 9 ” after the word ( parentheses in legal writing essay ) boilerplate.. Of numbers-in-parentheses that i was apparently following the Chicago Manual of Style.. In letters and then in numerals, no doubt, a 7 never looks like a 9 subject s... Follow the Style of Chicago on numbers, and ditch the parentheses stop! Wire ( and the words inside the parentheses provide extra information about else... Number sequence that you have made me laugh ( chuckle ). ” had better... Time, but still argue that it should be done because the require... Largely unnecessary for normal writing and reading to repeat the numbers our in words, or just putting them Arabic. Here only list the numbers out in letters and then put the number into words also the number into also! May end up being 11 or more, it might be important in helping a reader. 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Parenthesis is used in this format come a long way, the reader ’. Warung ( wah-ROONG ) near the mosque. ”, 12 “ we went [ to the roots the. Usually, encl… can everyone just stop this nonsense but here is the proper usage ( )!
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