Ages and American English

[Neptune]

Hi,
I'm new to this site and writing my first article for submission. My article includes a number of references to ages. Should these be written out in full (e.g. "at the age of eighteen") or are figures acceptable?

Also, I'm British but am answering a request which appears to be American based on the customer's spelling. I've set spellchecker to U.S. English, used Americanized spellings and not used any speechmarks or UK expressions as far as I'm aware, but are there any other things I should look out for? On that note, is "flurry" used in the US (as in, "a flurry of hormones")?

Thanks for reading

[Ed]

With numbers, I would suggest AP Style, which requires that you spell out numbers one through nine and use numerals for 10 and above.

Except, of course, at the beginning of a sentence. Never begin a sentence with a numeral.

Fifteen coworkers took the elevator one floor down to visit Barry for his 40th birthday.

Thanks,
Ed

[Neptune]

Thanks a lot. I was about to implement those changes when I noticed have numbers above and below ten in the same phrase. It would look rather odd to write something like "I have two friends aged eight and 12", would it not? Currently, all the numbers are written out (and none are overly long). I wonder, would it be better to leave it that way for the sake of consistency? Sorry to be awkward.

[Debbi]

The Purdue OWL site says this about AP style for ages:

"ages

For ages, always use figures. If the age is used as an adjective or as a substitute for a noun, then it should be hyphenated. Don’t use apostrophes when describing an age range. Examples: A 21-year-old student. The student is 21 years old. The girl, 8, has a brother, 11. The contest is for 18-year-olds. He is in his 20s."

For more AP style, check out this page:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/02/

[Neptune]

Ah thanks a lot.

[Ed]

Debbi, you're so cool. Thanks for that.

Ed