The just-gotta-use-it hyphen

Aloha, Shipmates ...

It's Tuesday here in Hawaii and time to talk about the hyphen here on the MC blog. Basic usage information can be found in the AP Stylebook, but I thought I would pull out the highlights and post them here. So, here goes:


1. Hyphens are joiners.

2. We use them to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or more words.

3. Use is far from standardized. It is optional in most cases, a matter of taste, judgement and style sense.

4. AP guidance does not address all possible uses. Use the first listed entry in Webster's New World College Dictionary if not listed in the AP Stylebook.

5. Some examples.

• avoid ambiguity: The president will speak to small-business men. We would not call them small business men as a size reference.



• compound modifiers: first-quarter touchdown, better-qualified candidate, a know-it-all attitude, etc.



• After a to-be verb: The children are soft-spoken.



• Two-thought compounds: serio-economic, socio-economic

One specific instance in which we would not use the hyphen is with -ly adverbs. How many times have you used this phrase -"regulary-scheduled deployment"? This is not correct. The correct usage is "regularly scheduled deployment". Why? This is so as we expect these words to be modifying the word that follows. (Are the quotation marks used correctly here? Find out soon)

Today's photo is brought to us by MC3 Casey H. Kyhl. Thanks Shipmate. Kyhl's photo can be found on Navy Newsstand.

Until next time. Write on!