Over the last few weeks I have been spending alot of time working on final edits for a paper and a proposal my collaboration has been trying to finish. It brings me to inevitable grammar question which google and basic grammar books seem not to be able to answer. Below I list some of my dilemmas. Many concerns are related to fractional or decimal numbers.
1.) Do we see no event (or events)?
2.) Is our expected background 0.6 +- 0.5 event (or events)?
3.) Do we expect 0.2 misidentified photons (or photon)?
4.) Are our detectors one-inch thick, 1-inch thick, or maybe even one-inch-thick or 1-inch-thick.
5.) Is it ever okay to use numerical representation for whole numbers less than 10?
6.) Are three semicolons and one colon too many for a sentence that makes up an entire paragraph? Just how many are to many?
No offense, but if this is the kind of thing you are worried about you guys have either succeeded, or you don’t have enough science to keep you busy. Just choose one.
On BaBar, we would say 0.X events – plural. Otherwise, you have to talk about “fractions of an event”, such as “we expect 0.X of an event” (or a photon, etc).
For numbers less then 10, my rule of thumb is if the number has units, write it as a number. Otherwise, use a word. For instance, if you say “Our detectors are make from one layer of X and another of Y” then use “one”. If you say, “Our detectors are 1 inch in diameter”, then use “1”.
You only hyphenate when you use a phrase as an adjective. For instance, “We use 1-inch thick detectors.” You only hyphenate the “1-inch” part, as that describes the thickness.
Three semicolons and a colon are too much, unless the semicolons are used to delimit a list.
My response on #6:
There should never be a paragraph made of one sentence. It sounds like you have a 5-sentence paragraph that has been bound up by punctuation. Let it free!