Figures & Dates Quiz

As both the Dragoman and New York Times style guides state, when reporting a rise or a fall, give the to figure first (in spite of logic) to prevent misreading as a range.

This rule is especially important in financial or annual reports.

“In January 2014, aircraft manufacturer Boeing reported revenue for the full year 2013 of $86.6 billion, up 6 percent from the previous year. The American multinational is currently promoting its state-of-the-art 787 Dreamliner. The Dreamliner is assembled at the company’s facilities in Washington state, which is the largest building in the world by volume and covers an area of 399,480 square meters.”

• Percents are an exception for the rule of spelling out cardinal and ordinal numbers less than 10.
• Always spell out percent in paragraph content (as in 30 percent, 3.5 percent, 66 percent).
• Measurements are never abbreviated (graphs, tables and academic papers are exceptions) and should always be written in full.

The text should have been formatted as follows:

“For the fiscal year ended May 31, 2013, Galatasaray football club had 322.7 million Turkish lira ($162.4 million) in revenue. The team, standing 13th in the Turkish Super Lig and beaten 6-1 by Real Madrid last month, has seen its shares slump 31 percent this year amid deteriorating finances.”

The text should have been formatted as follows:

• Volkswagen Group increases deliveries to customer by 5.6% year-on-year to 5.1 million vehicles; continued growth in China and Europe.
• At €98.8 billion, Volkswagen Group sales revenue is up slightly on the prior-year figure.
• Volkswagen Passenger Cars unveils the Jetta and Touareg model updates; Golf Edition launched to mark the bestseller’s 40th anniversary.

Note: In this case the use of the “%” symbol is correct. Stand-alone short sentences are one of the exceptions for its use. Additional exceptions can be found in the figures style guide.