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Subject:Re: Sickness of the hyphen From:Barclay Blanchard <blanchab -at- SOLOMON -dot- BUCKHEAD -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 15 Nov 1995 09:50:34 -0500
>>Now the hyphen -- there's a much abused and misused bit of punctuation.
>>It really seems to be a terminal case, even among tech writers. I
>>regularly see compound modifiers left unhyphenated, while other word
>>pairs gain needlessly gain a hyphen. Have you noticed?
Rick Lanser (rickl -at- slip -dot- net) asks:
>Yes, I've noticed--and I suspect it's partly due to the lack of an easily
>remembered rule for using them. Anyone on the list have one?
They way I remember how to use hyphens is that they connect the words
before a noun (adjectives or other nouns used as adjectives) that
modify each other, not the noun. (Huh?)
For example...
The light blue car sped down the highway.
"Light" might refer to the car's weight.
The light-blue car sped down the highway.
"Light" clearly refers to the shade of blue.
------>Barclay Elizabeth Blanchard<------
Senior Developer of Online Documentation and Training
OSoft Development Corporation, Six Piedmont Center, Suite 303, Atlanta, GA
30305
(404) 814-6030 X216 blanchab -at- osoft -dot- buckhead -dot- com
"True feminism--the belief that women should be given equal respect and
opportunities--can't coexist with putting anyone else down."--me
