Hello, The Associated Press replied to me and said that in the following construction I should not include the percent symbol (%) after the first number: This: a 10- to 15%-a-year increase in sales Not: a 10%- to 15%-a-year increase in sales Does their suggestion make sense in terms of logic by omitting the % symbol after 10, and using the hyphen in lieu of the symbol after 10? I’m just trying to grasp the logic. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. I thank you.
I specifically told the editor that we follow a modified form of AP Style at work. Instead of using “percent” we use the symbol. That example is what she said to do for that range with the symbol. Does it make sense, with just the hyphen after 10? a 10- to 15%-a-year increase in sales
It makes sense from a general "why" the AP suggested doing it that way, though not from a grammatical standpoint. (The actual rule, you'll have to work out from the AP Stylebook.) Many punctuation eliminations and changes you find in AP style were for the convenience of newspaper typesetters and paste-up artists. Some AP rules are holdovers from a bygone era. Eliminating excess punctuation (commas come to mind) got the newspaper to print faster. (Keep in mind how many editions there were to get out in those days: Morning, Afternoon, and "Extra"s for breaking stories.) Major cities had a lot of competing papers. I would also imagine there were few percent signs in the typesetter's box, so in the case of percent signs, it was probably a matter of conservation and speed of use for the typesetter. I can't cite a source, because it was explained by one of my professors during a field trip to the daily newspaper to watch the process of paste-up and printing. I had the same professor for News Article Writing class and for Newspaper Production class, so I don't remember which class, but we were watching a pasteup artist edit a story on the pasteup board with an Xacto knife with the editor standing over his shoulder because more details came out after deadline but before print, and Doc said, "Think of this man having to cut and paste in all your commas next time you get punctuation happy!!!" Totally cracked up the pasteup artist who until that point had been silently focused on his job. ETA: That's how the origin of "When in doubt leave it out" when it comes to punctuation and the AP was explained to me, anyway.
Say it out loud: does "ten to fifteen percent" or "ten percent to fifteen percent" sound more natural?
So, in closing, does everyone agree that the example makes logical sense, with just the hyphen after 10? (See below.) a 10- to 15%-a-year increase in sales
I would say it heavily depends on who you’re submitting your work to. For a news article, I would go with what the AP told you. A scientific article would never use percentages anyways so it’d be mute there, and for pop or personal stuff it’d be a matter of preference as all are clear.
