: Re: What's the appropriate way to write numbers in educational contexts like papers? I want to know if numbers should be written alphabetically in educational contexts, for instance: 10 plasma

@Carla500

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There is no single standard, but some things to consider:

If the numbers are of comparable units, use the form you would use for the greatest number in your sentence, according to your style guide. For example, if the greatest number is "10" and your style guide says to "write numbers ten or lower as numerals, and numbers greater than ten as words", and the numbers in your sentence were 3 and 10, you would write "Three plasma samples out of ten cannot be ignored". However, if the numbers in your sentence were 10 and 116, you would write "10 plasma samples out of 116 cannot be ignored".
Except..., as @JLG pointed out, you generally should not use a numeral at the start of the sentence; however, unlike @JLG 's suggestion, I would recommend recasting the sentence so that no numbers appear at the start. I suggest this because based on the point above, that would mean having to write out large numbers as words which isn't

Also, please note that the expanded word form of 116 should be "one hundred sixteen", and that there is an inconsistency in your original post: is the value 116 or 1016?

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