Punctuation Review

I often have issues with punctuations for family - This short post from Daily Writing Tips gives the proper way to punctuate from The Chicago Manual of Style.

Punctuation Review: Family Relationships

A random Web search suggests that people writing about families are not all on the same page when it comes to hyphenating terms for family relationships. For example:

A step-sister is the daughter of a step-parent to whom one is not biologically related.

I drew closer to my stepsister because I thought that we had something in common.

This is exactly what I loved about my grand Aunt, her passion for life and living.

My grandaunt’s husband was a businessman Is “adoptive mother” the same as “foster-mother”?

Nakeita took Jamal back in and remains his dedicated foster mother.

My dad always speaks very highly of my great grand mother who ran a printing press.

The sister of my great grand-mother, named Anne, married her first cousin.

My great-grandmother was a quarter Cherokee.

The Chicago Manual of Style offers these rules for family terms that include the words foster, grand, great, half, and step:

foster

The noun forms are open: foster mother, foster father, foster parents, foster home.

The adjective forms are hyphenated: foster-home background, foster-parent role.

grand

Grand compounds are closed: grandmother, grandparent, granddaughter.

great

Great compounds are hyphenated: great-grandmother, great-great-grandfather.

Note: The OED shows great-aunt and grand-aunt. M-W has great-aunt and grandaunt. Fortunately, great-aunt and grandaunt mean the same thing: “the aunt of one’s parent.” American speakers can avoid the strange compound grandaunt by sticking to great-aunt when referring to that particular relationship.

half

When referring to a sibling, the compound is open: half sister, half brother.

step

Step compounds are closed, except with grand and great: stepdaughter, stepsibling, step-grandfather, step-grandparents.