Constant Content

One-dollar, yes.

Yes, the renters' explanation would be useful Celeste!

Wouldn't you write $1 fountain drink, 50 cent cookie, and 75 cent savings? Or am I terribly gauche...

If not, one-dollar fountain drink would probably be best.

The Yahoo! Style Guide says: For prices of a dollar or more, use numerals and the $ symbol: a $6 coffee. . . For prices under a dollar, use the cents with the numeral: 89 cents.

So, if you go with Yahoo!'s style, it would be: I bought a $1 fountain drink and a 50 cent (50-cent?) cookie.

AP Stylebook is similar. It specifies using the numeral and cents for amounts less than a dollar as in 50 cents (instead of fifty cents).

Depends, I guess. I would still use "one-dollar" if making a reference to something that was cheap (though not necessarily literally a dollar). I'd not use a "$" sign in a story, for example; but in a practical article it'd be different.

Thanks for all the info about money and prices. I found Yahoo's Style Guide online, went back, and made some corrections. Here is one of the paragraphs in question:

**deleted content here***

It just seems like "half a thousand dollars" should not be written with numerals. What do you think?

Missy

I like the way you have it. Spelling out half a thousand dollars gives it more impact than $500.

Did I post too much of my article above? Will there now be problems with it passing Copyscape?
Missy

It should be fine. If you want to go in and delete it, you can.

Turns out this seven month old computer has crashed and had Windows Vista reinstalled five times.

Hi Celeste
How about this?

Crashes on this seven month old computer have already necessitated five windows Vista reinstallations!

I don't really know the context of the line, but I'ma take a stab anyway:

This seven-month-old computer has crashed and had Windows Vista reinstalled five times!

Crashes on this seven-month-old computer have required five Windows Vista reinstallations!

With maybe tacking on an "already" somewhere if the tone is extra-casual, or losing the exclamation point if it needs to sound more matter-of-fact.

Alternately:

The computer is only seven months old, yet crashes are such a frequent problem that it has already had Windows Vista reinstalled five times.

In seven months of use, this computer has needed five Windows Vista reinstallations.

Age of the computer: Seven months. Number of Windows Vista installations: Five.

Okay, done now. Was having fun. Tell them to use Windows 7.

We offer custom social media, content writing, and graphic design services.

or

We offer custom social media services, content writing services, and graphic design services.

I'd go with the first as it's not so redundant. However, I'd reorder the series mainly because "custom social media" on its own seems awkward or incomplete to me:

We offer custom content writing, graphic design, and social media services.

Agree with Celeste, though I like the cadence of "custom graphic design . . ." better for some reason, so I'd swap those two in her example.

I haven't written for CC in a while and my first article reviewed gets a no go for grammar. In particular "A perennial is a plant that dies back the ground in fall ... [grammar]" I'm sorry, but how is that bad grammar? I don't mean to sound argumentative, but I just don't see it. Any thoughts?