: Should I use letters or digits in the following case? De-Shi was holding something that looked like a price tag. It had the numbers 024 written on it. "Isn't that what cows wear

De-Shi was holding something that looked like a price tag. It had the
numbers 024 written on it.

"Isn't that what cows wear as earrings?"

"Yeah," De-Shi said, still inspecting the object, a thoughtful
expression on his face, "an ear tags."

I knelt down next to De-Shi. â€œ024. I think it belonged to the cow
number 24. You know, from the 30 that jumped.â€

â€œItâ€™s possible.â€

Right now I'm only using digits. Should I change some of them to letters? (I always get confused about this. Is there a general rule that tells you when to use letters and when to use digits?)

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@Debbie451

My general rules, adapted from AP style:

In narrative prose, use digits for 10 through 99.
Use digits for 100 and above unless the number can be expressed in
two words (like two thousand or five hundred or a hundred
million).
In dialogue, write out all numbers. You don't say "47," you say "forty-seven," as @what points out.
Write out digits under 10 in prose and dialogue.

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: Should I use letters or digits in the following case? De-Shi was holding something that looked like a price tag. It had the numbers 024 written on it. "Isn't that what cows wear

More posts by @Candy753

: When to use normal caps and small caps in fiction? Sometimes I don't know which one to use. For instance, what kind should I use when referring to the stamping on a t-shirt? Mark wore

: Commas at the beginning of a sentence: should I follow convention or intuition? An example from my own writing (Mother and daughter are burying their deceased dog): As planned that Friday,

: Is there a coherence problem in my story? So the logic goes like this: the protagonist realized life was meaningless, decided to kill herselfâ€”but at the last moment her mom calls to tell

: Is the following "...noun, adjective..." structure allowed in fiction? Exhausted, I continued lying on my back. A cloud drifted lazily in the sky, heart-shaped, its curves flawlessly outlined

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