Set in Style

A few weeks ago, a friendly reader asked:

What’s up with the new tendency to hypenate all modifiers, including (and especially irritating) the hypen-forbidden ”ly” words (e.g. family-friendly policy = WRONG)  The lawyers and marketers definitely need a little schooling on this!

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Consider this intro to a blog post written by a well-known professor of economics:

The growth of large government managed funds during the past few years has been spectacular.

Can you spot the problem with this sentence?

Is the well-known professor writing about funds managed by a large government, or about large funds managed by any government? Is he writing about large, governmentally managed funds, or something else?

One way to discover his meaning is to read his post and see what else he says. At the beginning of the second paragraph, it becomes obvious: he’s talking about large funds managed by any government, big or small.

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It’s a disservice to readers (in a case like this) to make them wait and wonder what you mean. Why not be clear? Why not make it easy for readers to know what you’re saying right just as you say it (rather than in another paragraph)?

Warning: if you draft contracts and agreements and such, and you can’t spot the problem with the sentence, read on. You don’t ever want to find yourself in the situation of having a bunch of people arguing about what you meant to write, and what you did write. (An ounce of prevention . . . . )

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The well-known professor could have used a hyphen to make his meaning clear, like this:

The growth of large government-managed funds during the past few years has been spectacular.

That follows the not-so-well-known rule that says:

Always hyphenate compound adjectives made up of a past participle combined with a noun or adverb when they precede the noun they modify.

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Rules on the use of hyphens are pretty well set. But there are so many of them.

Suppose you’re writing for your firm, and a question about the use of hyphens (or commas) occurs to you. Here’s what to do: consult your firm’s style guide. (Of course, your firm has one, right?) See what it says.

Very likely, it says to consult the Chicago Manual of Style for the use of hyphens (or commas).

Follow a reputable style guide like the Chicago Manual, and then — if a question turns up about what you wrote versus what you meant — you can more easily convince others that your interpretation is correct (assuming it is).

Warning: fail to follow the rules, and others might wonder about your mastery of a basic skill for lawyers: punctuation, by the rules. Violate am old rule you were expected to learn in middle school — do it in just the right place at the right time — and they might begin to wonder about your competence.

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The friendly reader is right (though her example is wrong) — you shouldn’t hyphenate certain combinations of compound modifiers (like an adverb ending in ly followed by an adjective) before a noun. Each of the following is in error:

1. A brightly-colored bus collided with a slowly-moving shopping cart.
2. A fully-anticipated result was triggered by a perfectly-timed release.
3. A barely-perceptible discharge could not cause such a highly-anticipated result.

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In our next installment on hyphens, we’ll look at how you can use them to make sure there’s no doubt about what you wrote means.

This entry was posted 13 December 2007 at 9:15 and is filed under Client Alerts, Copy, Production. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.