Whenever you combine several words to make them into one adjective or noun, hyphenate all of the words you are combining, as in:
- Man-made
- Day-old
- Case-by-case basis
- 25-year-old
- One-bedroom [apartment]
- 90-day waiting period
- Toll-free phone number
- Energy-related briefings
- The 3.8-mile-long tunnel
- Two-thirds majority
- One-eighth portion
- Roll of 35-millimeter film
- High-quality water
- Part-time job (But you would write He works part time because part time is an adverb describing the manner in which he works.)
Words that start with non are, in general, no longer hyphenated.
Words that start with re are also not usually hyphenated. However, when the root word starts with e , re- words begin to look confusing. In these cases, we opt for greater clarity by hyphenating the word.
Example:
reattach reassemble
re-enter re-emphasize
Suspended Hyphens
When describing a range of topics, you can use a suspended hyphen to signal that the first word is only part of the combined word group.
Example:
Four- to five-foot pipeline
Pre- and post-war Europe
10- and 15-phase controllers
Note that the suspended hyphen must have a blank space after it.
Use the Hyphen to Generate Clarity
If there is any chance that the reader will misunderstand the grouping of your words, use a hyphen to show what you mean.
- A man-eating shark is a shark eating dinner.
- A man eating shark is a man eating dinner.
- three-hundred-year-old trees are an unknown number of trees that are 300 years old.
- three hundred-year-old trees are three trees that are 100 years old.
- three hundred year-old trees are 300 trees that are 1 year old.
Do Not Use Hyphens With Verb Phrases.
Please block out time to see me.
Verb: block Adverb: out
Please set up my stereo system.
Verb: set Adverb: up
Please follow up on his phone call.
Verb: follow Adverb: up
| Incorrect |
Correct |
| Amount not-to-exceed $5 million |
Amount not to exceed $5 million |
| The board will follow-up… |
The board will follow up… |
Hyphenation is a slippery topic in today’s grammar. Words, like email, that were hyphenated just a few years ago are often not hyphenated now. Phrases like web site are still in transition — some people hyphenate while others do not. Sometimes the best thing to do is to check a reference such as the Gregg Reference Manual, the Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Stylebook for guidance. In general, it is more conservative to hyphenate compound words.
© 2012 Elizabeth Danziger
Looking for a way to upgrade the quality of writing in your organization? Contact lizd@worktalk.com for information about Worktalk’s customized on-site writing trainings.
When I teach “Email Best Practices,” the first principle does not refer to directly to email. Rather, it suggests that people determine whether email is the best medium for their message. In many cases, the phone is a better option.
Email is quick and easy to use and, even better for many people, it does not require you to directly confront your reader. Because of this paradoxical combination of immediacy with non-confrontation, people often opt for email when they are trying to communicate emotions or sensitive subjects. This is a mistake. If you need to have a dialogue with someone, you are probably better off with the phone. When both individuals take turns venting their feelings through their keyboards, conflict is more likely to escalate. Lacking nuance and tone, email is a poor choice for highly charged discussions.
Have you ever sent an email to someone asking them to get back to you immediately and then started tapping your foot, wondering why they haven’t responded already? Again, email is paradoxical. You as the sender can make your message instantly available, but your receiver is under no compulsion whatever to pick up your message. You have no control over when your reader will pick up your email or respond to it unless you sidestep the process by calling him on the phone. So if you need an answer or response immediately, follow your email with a phone call.
How annoying is it to run through five or six emails just to set a time for an appointment or meeting? Most people would agree that it’s pretty irritating to have your inbox clogged with “9:30 works for me” and “Where?” and “Sorry, can’t make it”. Although email feels like a quick, efficient choice, in some cases you will get your questions resolved more quickly with a phone call. If you work in a large organization, hopefully everyone is on Outlook or some other calendaring program; this would enable you to set appointments for groups without multiple “reply all” blasts about who is available when. Even if you can’t use Outlook, a quick phone call with both people looking at their calendars can eliminate the process of going back and forth with multiple one-line emails.
So here are a few situations in which email might not be the ideal choice: If you are dealing with strong feelings or sensitive information, avoid email. If you need an immediate reply, use the phone. If you’re setting up an appointment, try the phone first. As a general rule, figure that if you have exchanged three emails on a topic, it is time to pick up the phone or go to the person’s office. Hash out your communications in a context that enables you to access vocal tone, nuance, volume, and other vital elements of expression. Email is a great tool, but like all tools, it should be used for what it’s best at: Quickly conveying non-emotionally charged, non-time-sensitive information.
For more information on Worktalk’s Email Best Practices seminar, contact lizd@worktalk.com.
The December 2011 issue of National Geographic contains a fascinating article by Adam Nicolson about the genesis of the King James Bible. (A link to the article appears at the end of this post.) While the history surrounding the document is intriguing, I want to focus on the fluidity of the language. In choosing the final versions of every verse, the translators put the manuscripts in their laps and simply listened to how the words sounded when read aloud. In the Worktalk writing trainings, we emphasize the importance of using this powerful editing tool.
George Orwell did an exercise that illustrates the power of the language in the King James Bible. He took an excerpt from the book of Ecclesiastes and rewrote it using abstract, long-winded words. Ecclesiastes has been in continuous circulation for millennia. The original book was written in Hebrew over 2000 years ago and the translation was done 400 years ago. Here is the passage– try reading it aloud:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Notice the power of the language: the short, familiar words, the use of visual images, and the parallel structure. Hear how it flows. Now here is Orwell’s rendition of the piece:
Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
Sure, it contains similar ideas, but how likely is it that people would turn to Orwell’s version in times of distress? How many people will be reading it for inspiration a thousand years from now? Not too many. This exercise illustrates just a tiny portion of the King James Bible. The scholars who put together the whole translation took the time to edit with their ears as well as their pens, and produced a document that helped unify a nation and spread its message throughout the globe.
When we write for business, we are not striving to create language for the ages. Most of us will be happy if our message lasts just long enough to get to the person to whom we are writing. But the message of King James’s scholars rests with us as well. Get several people to look at a document and reach consensus about what sounds best. Put the manuscript aside for a while and then read it aloud. Where your voice pauses, insert a comma. Where your voice stops, insert a period. Where your voice stumbles, rewrite. Even if you fear that you are casting pearls before swine, remember that in the beginning was the Word.
© 2011 Elizabeth Danziger
For more information about the Worktalk writing trainings, contact lizd@worktalk.com.
Author Adam Nicolson has done an admirable job of tracing the history of this powerful document and describing its role in the development of European history. Here is a link to the article: > http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/12/king-james-bible/nicolson-text/1
“Act in haste; repent at leisure” is the operative proverb for email today. How often have you sent an email flying off into cyberspace, only to realize too late that it:
- Was going to the wrong person
- Conveyed a negative or angry tone that would damage your relationship with the reader
- Contained spelling or punctuation errors that would make you look ignorant and unprofessional
The more time I spend training people in how to use email effectively, the more horror stories I hear and the more likely I am to pick up the phone instead of sending an email.
Every email must be able to pass the newspaper test. That is, as you write your email, visualize it being reprinted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal or your local paper. If you cringe at the thought, don’t send that email. Take it from the countless employees at Toyota, Enron, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and so many others: That little email that you write in the privacy of your office is the most public thing you have ever written and you have no control over when and how it can be broadcast to the world.
Two key points in the writing of every email give you control over the process:
Filling in the TO Slot
If you want to avoid sending the email to the wrong person, do not fill in the TO spot until you have finished writing, reading and re-reading your email. This will raise the likelihood that you will send the email only to the person or persons whom you want to receive it.
Hitting SEND
Set up your email program so that sending an email becomes a two-step process. Outlook can be set up so that you hit SEND and are routed to the SEND/RECEIVE box, where you have to hit SEND again. Sometimes the millisecond pause is enough to make you think better of the idea of sending that sarcastic missive. Once you hit SEND, that email is gone. Force yourself to think twice before sending every email — especially if you were feeling emotional while writing it.
Another few points to remember:
Never trash another person in an email.
Assume that your nasty note will end up in that person’s inbox within 24 hours — and talk to the people who have accidentally sent their own nasty letters to their victims because of rushing to hit REPLY ALL.
Don’t send emails when you are feeling emotional.
Save it to the Drafts folder. Have someone else read it and give you candid feedback. Take ten deep breaths. If you have been pounding away at the keys, imagining with glee what an impact your words will have on your unwary reader, think carefully. Stop. Look at yourself. Listen to your inner sage and don’t hit SEND.
Proofread every email twice.
Face it: Spelling and punctuation errors make you look ignorant and unprofessional. There is no excuse for them in the days of Spelling and Grammar checking software. However, don’t rely exclusively on software for proofreading. Remember the consultants who sent in a proposal for a “Turkey Proposal for the Pubic Sector”. But seriously, folks, sending from an iPhone or iPad is no excuse. If you’re writing for business, spell and punctuate correctly.
©2011 Elizabeth Danziger
For more suggestions about using email effectively, visit the Worktalk blog postings on Email Land Mines.
Want to have a customized email training for your company? Contact Elizabeth Danziger to learn more. Call 310 396-8303 or write lizd@worktalk.com.
I wish I could offer attribution to these two punctuation parables but alas I received them unsigned. Nevertheless, they illustrate the important function that punctuation plays in telling the reader how to parse the words on the page.
Punctuation both paces and parses, instructing the reader about when to stop (for periods, question marks, and exclamation points), when to pause (for commas and dashes), when to make a longer stop within a sentence (for colons and semicolons) and when to keep barreling ahead (with no punctuation). Adding punctuation is like being an orchestra conductor, setting the pace and rhythm of your sentence.
But in some cases, punctuation can actually change a person’s life. Here’s how:
Once a prisoner was about to be executed. He stood in the middle of the prison yard, a noose around his neck, standing on a platform that would soon be kicked away. Suddenly the telegraph operator came running across the yard crying, “Wait! I just received a telegram from the governor! It says, ‘Pardon. Impossible to be executed immediately.’”
They removed the noose, gave the man a few dollars, and sent him on his way. Just as the prisoner went out the front gate of the prison, a free man, the telegraph operator came flying out again. “Wait!” he cried, “I got the punctuation wrong. It says ‘Pardon impossible. To be executed immediately.’”
Here is another punctuation parable:
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior.
You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy – will you let me be yours?
Gloria
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior.
You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Gloria
So you see that punctuation can change the meaning of your writing as well as setting the pace. For more information about how to use punctuation correctly, check out Get to the Point! Painless Advice on Writing Memos, Letters, and Emails Your Colleagues and Clients Will Understand, available through www.worktalk.com.
Sometimes it’s easier to learn by looking at examples of jobs well done. Here are a few sentences that illustrate a principle we teach in the Worktalk writing trainings: Create visual images. Abstractions do not move people the way images do. The more you can engage your reader’s senses — sight, sound, smell, taste and touch — the more impact your words will have.
But for most public opinion in Europe the war in Iraq was always a stretch too far, and a decade of body bags has blunted the European appetite for expeditionary warfare at America’s side.
The Economist ,9/3-9/9/11
The image of body bags brings home the reality of war much more than a word like fatality or casualty.
In the contiguous 48 states, the best weather isn’t in June, July and August. Spring is glorious in the South. Fall is splendid in the North. And winter is swell in Florida and the part of California where the four seasons are Smog, Mudslide, Brush Fire and Oscar.
Our summer weather in 2011 consisted of tornadoes, heat waves, an earthquake and a hurricane. For everyone this side of Nome, summer vacation in the summer is like having a coffee break at 2 a.m.
P.J. O’Rourke, “The Case Against Summer”, Wall Street Journal 9/3-4/11
O’Rourke introduces the seasons with general terms but follows up with specific visual images that give life to his point.
At last they came. After a week of hesitation in the wake of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s flight, the people of Tripoli climbed off the fence and poured into the capital’s central square for an all-night celebration capped by morning prayers. …
The Economist, 9/3-9/9/11
“Climbed off the fence”, “poured”, and “morning prayers” give vitality to this description.
Winston Churchill was an undisputed master of visual imagery. He combined powerful images with parallel structure to create sentences that galvanized an island nation’s will to fight a devastating enemy. Here is just one excerpt from a speech Churchill gave in Manchester in 1940:
Come then, let us to the task, to the battle, to the toil — each to our part, each to our station. Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plow the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succor the wounded, uplift the downcast, and honor the brave.
Resist the urge to dwell in abstractions. Give your readers something to see, hear and feel; they will repay you by paying greater attention and understanding you more clearly.
On October 22, 2011, Henry Hitchings, author of the upcoming book, The Language Wars: A History of Proper English, wrote a column in The Wall Street Journal titled “Is This the Future of Punctuation?”. In it, he proposes that English is rapidly becoming more oriented toward the spoken language than toward the conventions of written punctuation. He notes that “People fuss about punctuation not only because it clarifies meaning but also because its neglect appears to reflect wider social decline. And while the big social battles seem intractable, smaller battles over the use of the apostrophe feel like they can be won.”
After tracing the history of punctuation marks — hundreds of years ago there were no punctuation marks at all, but commas and periods had their heyday in the 17th and 18th centuries, when dashes, semicolons and apostrophes also made their marks. He also introduces a number of punctuation-mark wannabes such as the pilcrow, interrobang, hadera, and the snark.
Contemporary punctuation tends to be leaner than in formal documents of the past. Writers and editors use commas less frequently. As more people claim to have been absent from school the day the semicolon was explained, use of this handy little mark has dwindled.
Hitchings maintains that the trend toward less punctuation indicates a movement toward the reproduction of patterns of spoken language rather than the rules of writing. He notes that the dash reproduces the choppy pattern of speech and is thus more frequently employed by people trying to give a sense of breathless presence to their writing. I for one am opposed to the use of the dash in business writing. It is indeed a reproduction of speaking and thus does not belong in a carefully crafted piece of writing. In my book, Get to the Point!, I point out that the dash is like the quick kiss on the cheek or the air kiss, meant to briefly connect and then flit on to bigger and better things.
Hitchings also comments on the “eclipse of the hyphen.” He notes that in compound words the trend is now against hyphenation, so we have email, crybaby, and other compound words rendered as single words. This practice follows a long tradition of gradually easing out hyphens. The game of basketball used to be known as basket ball. It was then called basket-ball. Finally, sports writers got tired of the hyphen and the term graduated to one-word status: basketball.
Regarding the apostrophe, Hitchings points out that “The apostrophe is mainly a device for the eye, not the ear.” This is true, but if I see one more sign that says “Restroom’s” or “Please wear shoe’s in the pool area.” I don’t know what I will do.
The trend may be toward less punctuation, but the fact remains that punctuation sets the pace of your writing and clarifies which words belong together in semantic harmony. So watch out for the dashes and don’t give up on apostrophes and hyphens. People judge you by your writing, and punctuation remains a key element of good composition.
See the whole WSJ article at http://tinyurl.com/3csv7jb.
In the word penultimate, the prefix pen means almost. Thus, penultimate means “almost ultimate,” specifically, next to last. Ultimate is the last; it often has the positive connotation of also being the best.
“I was in the penultimate place in the race!” seems like an achievement unless you know that only two people were racing.
Who wants to own the penultimate driving machine? Give me a BMW!
Her outfit was the ultimate in fashion.
A plethora is not just a large number. The word has a negative connotation and indicates excess or overabundance.
I asked him to get enough cookies for the group, but he brought a plethora of provisions.
A plethora of complaints followed his announcement of the involuntary furloughs.
We received a large number of compliments on the packaging.
We received many compliments on the packaging.
To understand the following examples of commonly mistaken singulars and plurals, you need to know one little thing about many words in Latin and Greek: The plural is formed by changing the ending to the letter a. Thus, the following sets of singular and plural nouns is correct:
| SINGULAR |
PLURAL |
| Phenomenon |
Phenomena |
| Criterion |
Criteria |
| Datum |
Data |
| Medium |
Media |
The plural forms take plural pronouns and plural verbs.
Thinking that the eclipse was a unique phenomenon, the ancients did not realize that they were witnessing one of many cosmic phenomena.
Judging strictly by the criterion of speed, the horse was the best in its class; however, when all the criteria were considered together, it fell to third place in the competition.
A single datum does not constitute a trend; when many pieces of data together point to the same conclusion, we can legitimately make assumptions about their truth.
Newspapers are only one medium of mass communication; the many media available to consumers today give numerous options for learning new information.
Wondering about any other word pairs? Write to me at lizd@worktalk.com with your questions or pet peeves. Based on a variety of criteria, I will take your data under consideration and perhaps you will witness the phenomenon of being quoted online.
I saw a bumper sticker recently that said, “You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead.” This would be funny if it were not incorrect. The past tense and the past participle of lead is led.
A general leads his troops into battle.
Napoleon led his men into Russia just before the winter.
Soon the men realized that they had been led into a dire situation.
Lie vs. Lay
Lie (intransitive verb) means to recline or rest on a surface. This verb does not take an object. (That’s what it means to be intransitive.) You lie on the bed, lie down, or you are lying down. Lie (verb or noun) also means declaring an untruth or a false statement.
Lay (transitive verb) means to put or place something on a surface. Lay must be followed by an object, such as in lay the book down or chickens lay eggs.
The past tense of lie is lay, as in, He told me to lie down, and I lay down. This is tricky: the present tense of lay is lay, so you would write,
He told me to lay it down, and I laid it down.
She lays out her clothes for the next day every night before she lies down to sleep.
The past tense of lie is lay. The past tense of lay is laid.
That night, he lay down peacefully.
The past tense of lay is laid.
The chicken laid a dozen eggs.
The past participle of lie is lain. The past participle of lay is laid.
The corpse had lain there for days.
The past participle of lay is laid.
The men had laid the concrete several days before.
Rise vs. Raise
Rise (intransitive verb or noun) means to move from a lower to a higher position or to ascend. This word does not take an object. You might rise from bed in the morning, but you do not rise the bed. Rise also means to increase in number, amount, or value.
Raise (transitive verb or noun) means to elevate or pick something up, to cause to rise up. Like lay, raise must be followed by an object, as in, “Raise your hand.”
Please rise, come to the front of the courtroom, and raise your right hand.
He’s decided to raise cotton because he thinks that prices for natural fabrics are sure to rise.
Sit vs. Set
Sit is intransitive; it means to be seated. Set is transitive; it means to place something somewhere.
Please sit in the brown chair.
Set is transitive; it means to place something somewhere.
Set the cup on the table.
The past tense of sit is sat. The past tense of set is set.
He sat uncomfortably in the tall chair.
The past tense of set is set. (This is where these words get confusing.)
He set the book down before he stood up.
The past participle of sit is sat. The past participle of set is set.
They had sat there for an hour before the show began.
The past participle of set is set.
He had set the timer for 15 minutes but it didn’t go off.
Want to learn more about transitive and intransitive verbs? They’re easier to understand than you might think. Check out Get to the Point, 2nd edition, available through www.worktalk.com.
Here are a few more pairs of commonly confused words. You will make fewer, lesser mistakes if you learn them well.
Enormousness vs. Enormity
Enormousness always refers to something that is a huge size.
The enormousness of the elephant amazed him.
The enormousness of the portions she served made it impossible for him to eat everything on his plate.
Enormity is another matter. Some people use it to describe something huge, but in reality the word is meant to carry a value judgment: It refers to something big and bad.
After he detonated the bomb, he was overwhelmed by the enormity of what he had done.
When American troops entered the concentration camps, they were stunned by the enormity of what they saw.
Some enormously relaxed writing mavens claim that since enormity has the same root as enormousness, well what the heck, let’s just make them synonymous. But no! Let us fight the good fight against sloppy definition. If we do not, we may look back ruefully someday on the enormity of what we have done to the language.
Amount vs. Number
In general, amount refers to items or quantities that cannot be counted and number refers to items that can be counted. Amount is always used to refer to sums of money.
A huge amount of water flooded their living room.
He inherited a large amount of property from his parents.
A large number of things are wrong with the presentation.
A small number of people can have a large impact on the success of the project.
Fewer vs. Less
I wrote about this distinction in a Writamin a few years ago; you can find it at www.worktalk.com/Writamins. In brief, fewer refers to items that can be counted and less refers to things that cannot be counted. The word lesser means “smaller, of less importance.”
Fewer people attended the recital this year than last year.
There were fewer mistakes in the presentation after he revised it.
Less water covered the floor after we turned off the outside water valve.
He earned less money this year than last year.
We need to admit that this course is the lesser of two evils.
Appearing on television game shows is a way for lesser stars to bring in some money.
What other word pairs perplex you? Write to me at lizd@worktalk.com and I will cover them in future posts.
Check out Writamins writing tips at www.worktalk.com/writamins. You will learn something new!
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