Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Millions and billions...and other flubs

See if you can find the flubs in these five sentences that were found by copy editors before they appeared in the Forum.

1. Americans should watch for disagreements between Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration.

2. The intent is to honor the contributions of long-time local leaders in shaping and serving the Chamber, community and region.

3. Another multi-million dollar sports facility appears to be on the horizon for southwest Fargo.

4. A Fargo financial advisor faces new charges after the execution of a search warrant at his business.

5. The United States has the potential to create more than four million jobs in coming decades.

1. Americans should watch for disagreements between congressional Democrats and the Obama administration.

2. The intent is to honor the contributions of longtime local leaders in shaping and serving the chamber, community and region.

3. Another multimillion-dollar sports facility appears to be on the horizon for southwest Fargo.

4. A Fargo financial adviser faces new charges after the execution of a search warrant at his business.
AP Stylebook says: adviser Not advisor.

5. The United States has the potential to create more than 4 million jobs in coming decades.

AP Stylebook says: millions, billions Use figures with million or billion in all except casual uses: I’d like to make a billion dollars. But: The nation has 1 million citizens. I need $7 billion.
Do not go beyond two decimal places. 7.51 million people, $256 billion, 7,542,500 people, $2,565,750,000. Decimals are preferred where practical: 1.5 million. Not: 1 1/2 million.
Do not mix millions and billions in the same figure: 2.6 billion. Not: 2 billion 600 million.
Do not drop the word million or billion in the first figure of a range: He is worth from $2 million to $4 million. Not: $2 to $4 million, unless you really mean $2.
Note that a hyphen is not used to join the figures and the word million or billion, even in this type of phrase: The president submitted a $300 billion budget.

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