Look Good in Print

This text will refresh your memory or introduce you to the common writing rules for Standard American English. It addresses the 22 most common errors found in writing. Applying and using the fundamentals of good writing will ensure that your writing is clear, concise, and achieves your intended purposes.

02B: PUNCTUATION+

13. Insert Dashes and Hyphens in the Right Places

First, a dash (—) is different from a hyphen (-). The dash is longer—it indicates an interruption or adds stylistic emphasis to your point.

Dashes, commas, and parentheses can all be used to set off nonessential information in a sentence (see #10.1 above), but they must be used in matched pairs. In other words, the principle of parallelism applies to punctuation too. (See #8 in Chapter 2A.) Never set off a clause or phrase using a mixture of dashes, commas, and parentheses.

NO: Our accounting department—which always hosts the company picnic, has two members who used to work as chefs.

(The combo of a dash and a comma doesn't work.)

YES: Our accounting department—which always hosts the company picnic—boasts two

members who used to work as chefs.

YES: Our accounting department (which always hosts the company picnic) boasts two

members who used to work as chefs.

The smaller hyphen is often used to join two or more words into a compound adjective. The two hyphenated words form a unified description to modify the word that follows.

YES: We bought first-class tickets.

(The tickets are neither first nor class, but "first-class": one descriptive idea that modifies the following word, "tickets".)

YES: He has a never-say-die attitude.

(The attitude is not a never attitude nor a say attitude nor a die attitude. The three words combine into one unified idea that modifies the word "attitude".)

When the same words combine, but appear after the noun, they are not hyphenated.

YES: We received first-rate service.

 We received service that was first rate.

YES: I have a part-time job.

 I work part time at the restaurant.

Here's an exception: Hyphens are not used when one of the words is an adverb that ends in -ly.

YES: She bought the brightly colored dress. (no hyphen)

YES: He ate the rest of the partly opened package of cookies. (no hyphen)

When you're using two or more compound adjectives in a row and they all modify the same noun, the hyphen lets you avoid repeating the noun. This is called a floating hyphen.

NO: The company offers either a one-hour or two-hour orientation session.

(OK, but why repeat the word "hour"?)

YES: The company offers either a one- or two-hour orientation session.

Note: Self-esteem, self-confidence, self-awareness, and all other such self-referencing nouns always take hyphens.