To the left of the decimal point needs to be somewhere between 1 and 9 (one place). 983 in scientific notation would be 9.83 x 10^2. Do you understand how i got that? I got the 10^2 because i am moving the decimal point over two places to the left. If i move the decimal point to the right, then the exponent would be negative. Example:
0.00983 in scientific notation would be 9.83 x 10^-3 because i moved the decimal point three places to the right.