Bruce Beckham's Blog - Posts Tagged "hyphenation"
Hyphen Nation
Another little copy-training session I run is all about hyphens.
This humble punctuation mark has fallen out of favour (in UK advertising, at least) - but I'm doing my bit to prevent its extinction.
To my mind, judicious use of the hyphen helps to create an easy to read effect in a sentence.
To my mind, judicious use of the hyphen helps to create an easy-to-read effect in a sentence.
(After all, isn't easy-to-read a compound adjective?)
Hyphens also clarify meaning.
Right now I'm reading A Coat of Varnish by CP Snow. Now, he knew his grammar.
However, I just came across this line: His father had been a small shop-keeper, and he had made his way through academic skills.
This did stop me in my tracks.
Did the author really mean that the character's father was a short shop-keeper? For that is what it suggests.
Actually, this is a tricky one.
For instance, if he were to have written small-shop-keeper that wouldn't help at all, because what he really wants to say is small-shop keeper.
And even small-shopkeeper doesn't quite do it.
Hm. Maybe the editor should have spotted this one, and stepped in with something like: His father ran a small shop ???
This humble punctuation mark has fallen out of favour (in UK advertising, at least) - but I'm doing my bit to prevent its extinction.
To my mind, judicious use of the hyphen helps to create an easy to read effect in a sentence.
To my mind, judicious use of the hyphen helps to create an easy-to-read effect in a sentence.
(After all, isn't easy-to-read a compound adjective?)
Hyphens also clarify meaning.
Right now I'm reading A Coat of Varnish by CP Snow. Now, he knew his grammar.
However, I just came across this line: His father had been a small shop-keeper, and he had made his way through academic skills.
This did stop me in my tracks.
Did the author really mean that the character's father was a short shop-keeper? For that is what it suggests.
Actually, this is a tricky one.
For instance, if he were to have written small-shop-keeper that wouldn't help at all, because what he really wants to say is small-shop keeper.
And even small-shopkeeper doesn't quite do it.
Hm. Maybe the editor should have spotted this one, and stepped in with something like: His father ran a small shop ???
