Guidelines for Spelling and Handling Abbreviations and Numbers

Most publishers have a style manual that establishes rules for spelling, capitalization, writing numbers, and so on. This chapter presents some basic guidelines which can be adopted by individual report writers. If a dictionary shows spelling alternatives, such as "sulfur; sulphur" and "programed; programmed", it is better to choose the first‐listed spelling because most dictionaries normally list the preferred or more common spelling first. An abbreviation must be indicated to the reader as to what the abbreviation means by writing it in full the first time and then showing the abbreviated form in brackets beside it. Care should be taken to avoid forming one's own abbreviation when another abbreviation already exists and is commonly used. The general rule for writing numbers is to spell the number if it is one to nine, and use numerals for 10 and higher.