THE GOVERNMENT

When two independent clauses are joined by “accordingly,” “however,” “furthermore,” “therefore,” “hence,” “thus,”
or other similar words, use a semicolon at the end of the first clause.
The conference ended last Wednesday; therefore,
we can get back to work on Monday.
The committee members see compelling reasons to continue the investigation despite the
problems; thus, it will continue as scheduled.
Use semicolons to separate items in a series if the items are further compartmentalized by commas.
The guests included Juan Cruz, vice president for operations; Maria Santos, director of
finance; Anna Reyes, head of human resources; and Luis Lopez, accounts manager.
We ordered five reams of bond paper; nine blank stationery pads; and seven boxes of
assorted pencils, pens, and whiteboard markers.
Numbers
The style of writing numbers must also follow the principle of plain language. This means that numbers are
written differently based on how they are used in the text, be it in dates, figures, or any other function. For example
it would be best to write the figure “eight million twenty-two thousand five hundred six,” as “8,022,506.” The
preciseness of the number lends itself to be written using the Arabic form (1, 2, 3, 4…), given that length of the
number in word form can be easily misread.
Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) enjoy prominent use. Roman numerals are often used only in proper
nouns, or book/document chapters (e.g., World War II, Chapter V) or to establish a personal sequence for people
(e.g., Pope Benedict XVI, Queen Elizabeth I, Benigno S. Aquino III); they can also be found in dates on documents,
books, and movies.
Numbers from one to nine are spelled out. The numbers 10 and above should be expressed in numerical form
except at the beginning of a sentence; hyphenate all compound numbers from “twenty-one” through “ninety-nine.”
However, do not hyphenate, “two hundred” or “three thousand.” The complex number “3,236” is spelled out as
“three thousand two hundred thirty-six.” For example:
The Philippine Coast Guard rescued six passengers.
Twenty-seven passengers died on the spot.
More than 15 people are still missing.
The exception to this rule is when a numeral that identifies a calendar year is at the start of the sentence. An
exception may also be made for large complex numbers placed at the start of a sentence, especially in transcriptions,
wherein editing a sentence is not an option, and in articles riddled with large complex numbers. Consider these
examples:
2013 is proving to be a good year for the country.
3,678,092 people have been displaced.”
STYLE GUIDE FOR THE GOVERNMENT
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