Too Many Numbers

People can digest a few figures but not a mass of statistics. Use numbers sparingly in your writing, and keep in mind the following points:

— It is better to write "$92 million" than "92,000,000 dollars".

— It is better to give a readily understood comparison than a massive number. For example, you could say that 500 million pounds of garbage are produced in the United States every day, but it would be more effective to express that as 10 pounds per citizen.

• Check your math. The price of something can go up more than 100 percent, but it can never go down more than 100 percent.