To Hyphen or Not to Hyphen? That is the question.
Are you a serial hyphenator? Or do you just wish that was the least of your writing woes? Whether you’ve overused your life quota or have entirely missed the point of the all-too-often-misunderstood Great H, this one’s for you. Today’s tip comes from the good folks at Ragan.com:
Clear-cut rules for hyphens
By Denise C. Baron
Some may argue this makes the language colorful; others may say it drives them to drink.
Exasperating as it can be, at least it’s not boring; and sometimes, elements of the language will cause you to pause and reflect, if only to be certain that you’re using them correctly.
Take the hyphen — a little line that often makes a big difference but one that too often is misused, inserted where it doesn’t belong or missing altogether where it does. It’s the Rodney Dangerfield of punctuation; it deserves a lot more attention and respect than it gets.
The hyphen plays several roles. For one, it’s used to break up syllables in dictionary entries. For another, when the hyphen appears at the end of a syllable at the end of a line in print, it’s telling you that the remainder of the word has carried over to the following line; it’s signaling a continuance.
Grammatically, the hyphen’s main purpose is to ensure clarity, and here’s where things can get fuzzy. The hyphen commonly is used in a compound adjective — a phrase comprising two or more words that express a single concept. The compound adjective usually describes the noun that immediately follows it. One clue that a hyphen is needed to connect these words is when the lack of the hyphen causes the message to be unclear.
Here are some examples:
- fastest-growing population
- four-hour programs
- little-known company
- third-world country
- high-class ring-designer
Without the hyphens, these phrases could be misconstrued. They’ll stop you in your tracks as you read them, because without the hyphens, you cannot be sure what’s being conveyed.
The “fastest growing population” could be interpreted as a growing population that runs more quickly than any other growing population. “Four hour programs” could describe four programs that are each an hour long. A “little known company” could be a small business that is widely known. A “third world country” could be number three in a list of global nations.
However, for “high class ring designer,” is the reference to a designer of class rings who’s tipsy or to a skilled designer of rings, in general? The hyphens let you know.
Then there’s when not to use the hyphen.
Words such as firsthand, necktie and firewall are not hyphenated, and there are a slew of others that, even though you might think they should be hyphenated or have always hyphenated them or have always seen them hyphenated, aren’t. Adding to the confusion are words that, depending on their usage in a sentence, may or may not sport a hyphen. Lowdown, for instance, when used as a noun is a single word; however, used descriptively, as in that low-down, dirty, rotten scoundrel, it needs the hyphen.
Knowing with confidence when or when not to use the hyphen requires the assistance of a good dictionary, because as far as I can figure out, there’s no single rule to keep it all straight. Consider the word long. Just look at some of the many entries listed in Webster’s II New College Dictionary for nouns and adjectives that have long as a prefix:
- longboat: noun, no hyphen
- long suit: noun, space/no hyphen
- long-distance: adjective, hyphen
- longhair: noun, no hyphen
- longhorn: noun, no hyphen
- long-horned: adjective, hyphen
- longsighted: adjective, no hyphen
- long-winded: adjective, hyphen
Cocktails, anyone?
As for adverbs, most English usage manuals advise avoiding hyphens after “-ly” adverbs, such as “fairly close race” and “equally effective medication.” As the Associated Press Stylebook explains, readers expect such adverbs to modify the word that follows.
When in doubt about hyphenation, don’t guess. Instead, check your stylebook for guidance. Better yet, keep a good dictionary on hand — and use it. Or, even better, consult your local bartender.
Denise C. Baron is a director of global communications with Merck & Co., Inc.
TTEU #417: National African American Read-In Event
Is there enough room in the world for all the things that excite us? Okay – granted, the assigned serial is utterly random, but this little gem is nonetheless incredibly noteworthy:
21st Annual National African American Read-In
In honor of Black History Month and with the endorsement of the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE; of which L Words is a proud member) is once again sponsoring the National African American Read-In, dedicated to celebrating the history of African American literature and further emphasizing the importance of (and joy in!) making reading a lifelong practice.
Originally created by a group of scholars to familiarize readers with great works in African American literature, the event has grown to boast over one million participants internationally, including churches, schools, libraries, bookstores, and other community groups and professional organizations. Participants gather in Read-In groups to experience a variety of African American literature together, from public readings and discussions to media-driven author presentations.
In support of the event, L Words has created an online Read-In group that will be facilitated through this site. For the next 5 weeks, we’ll be reading and writing our socks off! (Not literally, of course – the threat posed to the group by such an interpretation is simply too great to comprehend.) Because this event is in truth another lens from which to philosophically view the literacy debate, participants will be considering the following questions (among many others) with each text selection:
How does this work help us understand the concept of literacy, particularly culturally-specific literacy? In what way(s) can this work help us become better readers/writers/speakers?
After days of debate, the following text list (taken from the Recommended Text List created by the NCTE) emerged for our seminar focus: (Notice the range in complexity of subject matter and overall text)
- Angelou, Maya (1983). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
- Comer, James P. (1997). “Waiting for a Miracle: Why Schools Can’t Solve Our Problems and How We Can.” (Essays)
- Hill, Patricia (Ed; 1998). Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition.
- Hurston, Zora Neale (1990). Their Eyes Were Watching God.
- Jones, Edward P. (2003). The Known World.
- Morrison, Toni (1992). Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. (Criticism)
- Perry, Theresa, & Lisa Delpit (1988). “The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, & the Education of African American Children.” (Essay)
- Royster, Jacqueline Jones (2000). Traces of a Stream: Literacy & Social Change among African American Women.
- Singley, Bernestine (2002). “When Race Becomes Real: Black & White Writers Confront Their Personal Histories.” (Essay)
- Taylor, Mildred (1984). Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
- West, Cornel (1993). Race Matters.
- Wideman, John Edgar (1988). Sent for You Yesterday.
Obviously, this list is too lengthy to tackle singlehandedly; participants should choose 1-2 works only and be prepared to discuss them, forum-style, with the group. Discussions/presentations/questions should be forwarded to the group every Wednesday by no later than 8:30pm PST.
The group is filling up quickly, and we’d like to keep the size reasonable to ensure thoughtful consideration of all posts. To sign up, email us at info@lwordsediting.com with the subject line reading “Read-In.”
Read-In guidelines mandate that our last post be turned in by no later than March 15, so there’s precious little time to waste. Choose a selection and head to your local library or bookstore today for pickup. L Words will publish the results of our participation and discussion at the conclusion of the Read-In. We are excited to be learning with you all.
Happy Reading!
Things That Excite Us (TTEU) #347
Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles…November is upon us again.
Which means it’s time for National Novel Writing Month! It’s been a couple of years since we dusted off our trusty mechanical pencils and notebooks and spent long, caffeinated nights plotting the fate of poor unsuspecting (and suspiciously named) characters. And while it’s certainly true that fiction is not for every writer, NaNoWriMo offers a relaxed, fun venue for even the worst among us to accomplish the rather enviable task of writing a complete novel – even if it’s never published or read by anyone who doesn’t share our last names.
Are you up to the challenge? Sign up now and join in on the fun!
———
(From http://www.nanowrimo.org)
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2008, we had over 119,000 participants. More than 21,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
So, to recap:
What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.
Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!
5 Steps to Better Writing Now
The other day a friend and I were talking about the dissertation project she’s been “hard at work” at now for over two years. Her biggest problem, unlike most graduate students I come across, has not been the research, deciding on a topic, the typical back-and-forth with her Dissertation Chair, or the all-too-familiar laziness that sets in sometime after the 2nd semester. My friend’s problem, rather, has been the actual, nitty-gritty writing.
The stare I gave her must’ve been along the lines of “Are you kidding me? Of all the things that could slow you down, just recording your research is the one that gets you?” She immediately became defensive. “Look,” she said. “Writing doesn’t just come to me like it does to some people. I just don’t get it. It’s super hard and I really have to work at making what I write not sound stupid.”
I thought about this for a few minutes. I do believe that we all have certain strengths, things that come more naturally to us than to others. But to what extent is writing one of those things? Is someone “born” without that strength simply doomed to struggle painfully through every written task in life? Was it okay for my friend to just accept her lot and try to move on as best she could?
Oh, fiddlesticks. You may not be as nifty with a fountain pen as say, Shakespeare, but anyone can learn to write well. And barring the time and practice it takes to accomplish that, everyone can at least learn to write better. So for all the struggling, would-be writers of anything out there, I’m going to give you 5 fairly simple steps to writing better and seeing results not in ten weeks or two years, but right now. You ready? Sure about that? Here we go.
- Know your audience. I don’t mean know them personally, but know who you’re communicating to. No matter what you’re writing – a dissertation, a sci-fi comic book, or a post-it note – you need to know who will be receiving the message. What does this audience expect of you? What words or phrases are they likely to understand and use in their daily lives or vocations? Are they professional? Casual? Academic? Tailor your language appropriately. It would be just as ill-advised, for instance, to pepper a presentation to a client with the words ”dude” or “you know?” as it would to overwhelm your high school babysitter with “Peradventure the child should awaken, the steps first and foremost to be taken, according to the most recent studies on Child Health and Well-Being…”
- Consider your message. Here’s where many people make their biggest mistakes – and we haven’t even talked about grammar yet. The most common reason written communications fail is not that they’re full of spelling errors but that they’re difficult to understand. If at any point in your communication your audience does not know what you’re saying, you’ve already lost. The keys to great communication are: precision (“What do I want to say? How will I go about saying it?”), conciseness (“What do I need to say? Can I say it better with fewer words?”), and clarity (after writing, read it over and ask, “What did I just say? Is this an accurate reflection of what I wanted to say in the beginning?”).
- Avoid common grammatical errors. Also a tricky point. Too many people live in fear of the dreaded “g-word” and seem content to assume grammar is much more complicated than it really is. Here’s
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reason to rejoice: for all of you who never intended to become professional writers, you can ignore a good chunk of what you pretended to learn about grammar in the first place. If you want to communicate well, instead hone in on these grammatical principles:
a. Use complete sentences. (Nouns plus verbs!)
b. More than one subject (the person doing the action of the sentence), equals a plural verb. Always.
c. Remember pronouns? (Hint: they take the place of a noun.)
When you use them, make sure the sentence identifies which
pronoun belongs to which noun. In the sentence Bobby and
Tommy played with his kite all afternoon and then went to his
house for lunch, who does his refer to?
d. If you start your communication with present tense verbs
finish up that same way, if at all possible. Please. I’m begging.
e. Don’t use a comma when a period will work better. In fact,
don’t use a comma when anything else will work better.
There’s a popular fiction going around that you should place
a comma wherever you would naturally pause when reading
aloud. That’s simply not true. There are rules for commas
just like anything else. The more commas you use, the
harder it is for your readers to keep track of your full
meaning. If you don’t know the rules, go easy.
4. Writer, edit thyself. Seriously. Buy a good dictionary and then use
it. Also make much use of your word processor’s spell check. People
who argue that it’s only accurate in 90% of situations fail to realize
that 90% is a lot better than they could do unassisted. And if you’re
so talented that you don’t even need spell check, you probably
shouldn’t be reading this.
5. Writer, you are not all-knowing. Get an editor. Even the best writers
make grammatical mistakes or have trouble communicating a point.
The problem with proofreading your own stuff is that it’s yours; it’s
hard to get objective about something so personal, and your brain
can often fill in logic gaps or gloss over spelling or grammar errors
easily because you already know what you intended to say. Your
readers, not being in your head, are thus at a distinct disadvantage.
Help them out. Get someone else to eyeball your writing. You may
be surprised at the errors you missed or the perspective you gain
from a fresh pair of eyes.
Okay, that’s it. Five relatively simple steps (so I cheated and used subpoints – you’re hardly perfect yourself) to immediately improve your writing. I hope it’s been helpful. Come back next week when we tackle global warming.
Happy writing!
Things That Excite Us #334
L Words Writer
s’ Blocks has just joined the National Gallery of Writing! For those of you who are unfamiliar with this venue, the National Gallery of Writing was founded by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and its partners to spur writers of all ages and abilities to hone their skills, network with other writers, and experience other written works from the comfort of your home office or living room. The gallery is open for submissions throughout the summer and will be unveiled for public viewing on the National Day of Writing (Tuesday, October 20).
The greatest part of this adventure? Absolutely anybody can participate! Whether you’re an old pro with another book deal in the works, an amateur poet pursuing that one perfect image, or someone who has never considered yourself a writer, the National Gallery is for you. Don’t have the time to write a lengthy piece? Don’t sweat it – the gallery accepts everything from ‘artsy’ lists, letters, and text messages to short stories.
Each applicant may submit one piece for inclusion in the gallery, so make it a good one! We at Writers’ Blocks will be submitting shortly – we’ll keep you posted on what we decide to send in!
http://galleryofwriting.org/
