Know When to Use A Hyphen in Compound Words

by JENNIFER ROVA

There are  several types of compound words:

1    1. Single word, no hyphens

           hindsight, babysit, baseball, kindercare, background, antebellum, carpetbagger

2. Do not use a hyphen unless it serves a purpose. If a compound adjective cannot be misread  
    and its meaning is recognized, do not use a hyphen:

            high school curriculum

            health care reform

            day treatment program

            play date

            grade point average

     

3. Hyphenated words acting as adjectives before a noun they modify if the term can be 
    misunderstood or if the term expresses a single thought:

            well-baby exam

            able-bodied man

            three-legged race

            well-intended plan

            triangle-shaped house

                 

4.  Compounds in which the base word is a proper noun or is                             

           a number: post-2001

           an abbreviation: pre-NALP trial

           capitalized: pro-British, German-speaking Austrians

           more than one word: non-qualifying-senior students

5. All "self-" compounds whether they are adjectives or nouns:

            self-report

            self-esteem

            the test was self-paced

            self-centered actor

6. Words that could be misunderstood:

            re-pair [pair again]

            re-form [form again]

            re-construction plans

            re-enact the murder

            re-carpet

7. Words in which the prefix ends and the base word begins with the same vowel:

           meta-analysis

           anti-intellectual

           co-occur

        

8. Use a hyphen to join a word to a past participle to create single objective preceding the noun 
     it modifies. If a compound adjective follows the term, do not use a hyphen, because 
     relationships are sufficiently clear without one:

well-intended plan; the plan was well intended

            hand-iron-shaped mark; the mark was in the shape of an hand iron

            same-sex children; children of the same sex

9. Write most words formed with prefixes as one word:

            aftereffect

            extracurricular

            multiphase

            socioeconomic

10. When two or more compound modifiers act together, the hyphens are retained in all    
       except the last modifier:

            long- and short-term memory

            2-, 3-, and 10-min trials

            pre- and post-war crimes
            red-, yellow- and green-tinged hues appear

11. Do not hyphenate compound words that end in “-ly” even if they precede a noun:

          fully developed plan

          heavily fortified troops

          stringently enforced rules

          accurately reported data word

12. When splitting a multiple syllable word at the end of a sentence. Split the word after a 
       syllable:

         I wrote the illustrated, minia-

         ture book in six months.

         He fished until his sun-     

         burned head hurt too much.

         Mary hurried through her college appli-

         cations.

(adapted from the sixth edition of the APA Publication Manual, 2010)

(english.com/grammar/00000048.htm)

Good Books for Those Pesky Grammar Questions

Mignon Fogarty is a popular, no nonsense grammarian who has written numerous books, audio podcasts and a weekly post on various aspects of American grammar and tips for better writing. She is quoted as saying, "Usage not grammar confuse people." I bought her book (at left) with prize money from a writing contest and it was money well spent.

Fogarty is a favorite of mine and especially this book Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, St. Martin's Press 2008. It provides marvelous answers to my grammatical questions (and don't we all have them.) She takes a more relaxed approach to "correct" grammar. She advocates knowing your reading audience and if there are two ways of writing a sentence, choose the one that fits the majority of  your readers unless the writing is for a business, academic or for a general audience. If you are writing for localized geographic area of readers, some leniency may be granted to write in a way that it is perceived as correct even if it seems incorrect in other parts of the America.

 "An" versus "a" is one example. I was taught that "an" is proper before words that begin with a vowel and "a" is used before consonants. It usually works well until you get to words like "historic." In actuality, it is easier to remember that we should use "an" before  vowel sound and "a" before  consonant sound. Thus, according to Fogarty, page 6, "an hour" is correct because hour starts with a vowel sound. "A historic expedition" is correct while "an honorable fellow" is correct because honorable starts with a vowel sound. As you can tell, Fogarty's examples are clear and easy to remember.

There are pages of helpful appendices: conjunctive adverbs, subordination conjunctions, linking verbs, and common irregular verbs that are helpful to the student writer and a good refresher for the experienced one. The disjointed approach of the book is overcome by a helpful index in the back. I do not own  kindle but one reviewer said this book was a bit difficult to use because there was no table of contents in the Kindle version. The book does not seem to have much structure to it but the problems she solves are numerous and easily understood. read it enough to become familiar with it and it will be a resource you reach for often. The examples are clear. She gives easy to remember tips so rules become cemented in your mind.

Lynn Truss' book Eats Shoots and Leaves is about the correct use of punctuation. What I love most is how well the authored blends traditional "how to" with historical insights, quotes from famous authors, and humorous anecdotes. She writes with humor and a strong indignation about the amount of incorrect punctuation seen today. She blames emails and text messaging plus laziness for all of it, not ignorance. The book is written by a British author for a British audience and thus there are some phrases that we may ponder but with some thinking, they are understood. The book is well organized and easy to immediately find the "A' to your "Q." 

I keep Mignon Fogarty's book in the car for when I have a few minutes as I wait. You can pick it up, read a few pages or chapters and put it down knowing you spent your time well.
Lynn Truss' book I keep on my book shelf within easy reach. Both are good additions to your library and inexpensive.

Question Mark and Exclamation Points Together ?! Interabang Explained

JENNIFER ROVA

May we use ?! and !? or ???? or !!!! in writing? It is unacceptable to use the aforementioned in academic writing, in formal writing, in business writing and by good writers. Its use points to the writer as uneducated or too lazy to think of the proper words. In recent years and in more casual writing, ?! and alternatively !? became popular through comic strip cartoons. Often the cloud above a character’s head will contain  interrobongs or interabangs  (in-TER-a-bang) which is what [?!] and [!?] are called, the latter spelling being the preferred choice.

interabang

Punctuation at the end of a sentence is called terminal punctuation. There is the period [.], which ends most sentences. The question mark [?] ends an interrogative sentence and an exclamation point [!] is used after an interjection or exclamation.

An interabang is used to express some question, excitement, surprise or disbelief: I am adopted?!

You did what to the dog!? Please, will you help me?!

Is there a specific way to use the interabang? Yes, it turns out, there is. If you want to use an interabang, place the most important punctuation mark first. “You got into Harvard?!” denotes first surprise that you got accepted followed by the extra emphasis of the unbelievable. “You got into Harvard !?” is excitement for your acceptance followed by the lesser surprise that you got in.  The unwritten rule is that you put first the punctuation you would normally use without its companion.

“What are you doing?” is asking a simple question because I do not know the answer.

“What are you doing!” is disbelief, horror or worry regarding what you are doing that I see and I understand.

“What are you doing?!” is surprise and disbelief and “What are you doing!?” is disbelief followed by why would you do something like that?

There is a glyph (symbol) for an interabang but it is not found in most fonts. Apparently you can find it text editor or by using Americana font. I could not find it in fonts and I do not have text editor but it looks like this. It is combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. Most people use "?!" or "!?"

interabang

There are several other uses of the word interabang in unrelated instances. One is a web site of an English design firm, interabangUK, another is a travel web site, Interabang travels with Trisha and Derrick, plus various others within a variety of unrelated subjects.

The question is it ever proper under any circumstances to use multiple exclamation points or question marks such as “I am so tired!!!!!” “Where are you?????” The answer is no, unless you want to look stupid and annoy your reader be it in an email, on Facebook or in your writing.

For more information see Nancy Owens Barnes' post on "Exclamanation Mark: Its Use and Abuse!"
http://writingnorthidaho.blogspot.com/2012/11/exclamation-mark-its-use-and-abuse.html

P.S. I agree with a reader's comment that to use "ect., etc." is also a no-no.

The Confusion Over Quotations Marks and Periods~Blame It on Noah Webster

Do you every wonder why we spell it color not colour, favor not favour, judgment not judgement, odor not odour, apologize not apologise? Do you wonder why Americans put the quotation marks outside the periods not inside like seems logical to me? Want to know why we use double quotation marks [“ ”] when the British use singles [‘ ’]? It is all due to lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843).

Webster had two reasons for changing British English into American English: his poor education and belief that America should be different from England. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut and was educated at public schools. He called his teachers in elementary school the “dregs of humanity” (in Britain they would use single quotation marks here) and the learning conditions deplorable. After graduating from Yale University, he taught school for a while and found he could not make a living at it; he also thought the teaching materials were horrible. He studied law under Oliver Ellsworth, later the Chief Justice of U.S. Supreme Court. Opening a law office in the midst of the Revolutionary War, Webster soon realized he could not make a living at practicing law either. Much to our advantage and confusion, he became a lexicographer (from Greek meaning "words" and "to write" i.e., a writer of dictionaries). 

As a young adult during the Revolutionary War, Webster became a strong advocate of the more liberal Federalists instead of the conservative Republicans. He felt that America should shrug off the trappings of the English aristocracy for a society that was for everyman. He felt the new nation had to drop the cultural and speech habits of England for a more relaxed approach to life. He wrote hundreds of essays and newspaper articles advocating the American life.

Paramount to the success of this endeavor (not endeavour), he set about changing grammar, punctuation and spelling. Webster was triumphant in most of his promotions. He is responsible for Americans spelling words without the “u” e.g.,* color and favor and using “-ize” instead of “-ise.” The latter went along with his attempt to change words to reflect their more phonetic sounds. Some examples of words that failed to catch on are: yung, reeding, masheen and tung but theater and plow did. He thought it made more sense to use double quotation marks to indicate written conversation leaving single quotation marks for other uses. He decided periods should logically (really?) be put inside double quotation marks. Type setters of old quickly adapted Webster's use of periods inside double quotation marks because it kept the tiny "." from falling over which is why my spell and grammar checker must be British. It tries to correct me when I put them inside. It irritates me because I agree with the British that periods belong on the outside. For no obvious explicable reason, sources say that British writers and publishers are slowly converting to our use of quotation marks. I say, “Harrumph”. 

In order to earn a living, Webster started a school for children of wealthy New Yorkers. This seems dichotomous to his principles but a fellow does what a fellow has to do. Because his education was so poor and unable to find acceptable teaching materials and books for children, he expounded the American spirit of entrepreneurship and wrote his own. For over 100 years, Webster's books on grammar, reading and spelling were used successfully to teach American children. Commonly called The Blue-back Speller, it sold 77 million copies. Every American child had access to these learning tools, not just the aristocratic families. From the profits of the sale of these books, a half-cent royalty per copy, Webster was able to dedicate eighteen years of his life to writing the first dictionary of American words, An Compendious Dictionary of the English Language published in 1806. Incidentally, trying to protect his work from plagiarism led to the first copyright laws in the United States in 1790. Reports vary on the number of words in the book but do agree that thousands of them had never been published before including skunk, squash and moccasin. 

An American Dictionary of the English Language and thereafter popularly known as Webster's Unabridged, was published in 1828 by Merriam Publishers later to become Merriam-Webster as it is known today. Webster and Mirriam Publishing produced a second edition. He died on May 28,1843 days after compiling another revision. He is buried in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven Connecticut. He was 84 years old. You may visit Webster's house, now a fine museum, 227 Main St., Hartford, CT. An excellent resource for further study of Noah Webster's profound impact on shaping American and American English, is The Forgotten Founding Father Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture, by Joshua Kendall, G.P Putnam's Sons, 2001.

So, are hats off to Noah Webster? Understanding the political fervor (not fevour) at the time, I can understand his reasoning on the spelling but continue to have doubts about those quotation marks. What do you think?

*British English does not use a comma after e.g.
Please note: the many resources I consulted had conflicting titles of his books and dates of publication.