Re: hyphens in multiple-word mo

[cjs10 -at- CORNELL -dot- EDU]

Why is yours a silly question, Katherine?  It's called a suspended hyphen,
where I come from.  And it's very useful.

(Apologies to the bandwidth-conscious for the fact that I have included
the entire message -- I'm writing in Pine, and it's veeeeery suhloooow.)

Joanna
===========

On Fri, 27 Sep 1996, Katherine D. Fisher wrote:

> Karen Lew wrote:
> >
> > The sentence in question read something like this: " . . .[whatever] is
> > department owned and operated . . ."
> >
> > As the technical editor, I inserted hyphens as follows: " . . .[whatever]  is
> > department-owned and -operated . . . " using the grammatical logic of a
> > temporary compound used as an adjective.
> >
> > The author (and our mutual boss) kept removing the hyphen before *operated*. I
> > finally just gave up.
> >
> > Yes, I realize it would have been much better to merely rewrite the sentence:
> > " . . . [whatever], owned and operated by the department, . . ."  but that was
> > not an option at the time.
> >
> > I can't find this *specific situation* in Chicago Manual of Style, beyond
> > what's said in 6.31 (and don't have Bernstein of anyone else at hand at the
> > moment). Anyone have any thoughts on this? (silly question, of course).
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Karen L. Lew
> > Sr. Technical Writer/Editor
> > Environmental Protection Department
> > Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
> >


> Karen:

> Forget that Chicago Style Manual.  Here's the rule: if the compound
> adjectives FOLLOW the noun they are modifying, don't hyphenate them. If
> they precede it, then hyphenate them:

> "Department-owned and -operated equipment."

> -OR-

> "Equipment that is deparment owned and operated."

> Kathy Fisher
> Tech Writer - New Mexico
> http://members.aol.com/KDFisher/kdfisher_index.html

> P.S.  I'd consult the Shipley Style Guide. I think it's the best. It's
> easy to understand and uses lots of common sense.