I had a client who just couldn't cope with me writing 'six-to-12 months'. She asked me for the reasoning and understood it, and she lived with it ... for a little while. But when we got close to print, she asked me to change the phrase to 'six-to-twelve months'. Because she was the client, I made the change, but it pained me to do so!
Yet I do understand where she is coming from. To someone who doesn't live and breathe style conventions, it must look like a mistake to have a number spelled out in full followed by a number written in digits. 'Twelve' isn't a particularly long word. Am I just pedantic? Is there room for flexibility?
I've always enjoyed (!) spelling out numbers and totally agree with the "0 - 9 spell it out" rule ... except for when there's are two numbers, one below 10 and one after 10. I like consistency, and as per my previous post, I try to write in a style that is easiest to read for the audience, so I would write: 6 - 12 months, as this is easier to read than: six to twelve months.
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