En dashes and Em dashes in Numbers

Question

In given instructions, particularly in academia, students are instructed to write papers within a certain page range. If the numbers are supposed to be spelled out, would it be "write a four- to six-page paper" or "write a four—six–page paper" or something else?

Answer 1

Hi Christopher,

When giving a range of numbers (expressed numerically) you are able to just use an en dash; for example: "Please write a 4-6 page paper."

However, with numbers expressed in writing, you still need to include the word "to," i.e. "Please write a four-to-six-page paper. The dashes here are used in between each word, in order to connect them as one single modifier of the word "paper."

You could also just exclude all of the en dashes (i.e. "Please write a four to six page paper), but for the sake of clarity, I would go for the "four-to-six-page" version.

Hope this helps!

Best,

Jacob