Hyphens and Madness
A 2011 study at a US university, I forget which for the moment, looked at the correlation in a control group of two thousand adults between periods of mental instability requiring medication or other professional treatment and their attitude to a series of problem-solving tests involving the hyphen. (They were unaware that the hyphen was the focus of the study.)
The results were inconclusive and I can’t quite remember why or how; but it was clear that there was either a significant correlation between the two test criteria, or not.
I mention this in relation to proofreading and copy-editing because of internet scare stories about hyphenation decisions being a cause of such problems, particularly among copy-editors with a predisposition to stress-related difficulties with punctuation generally.
Relax!
In this post I am not attempting to lecture you on the hyphen. Relief all round. There’s loads on this little beast in our proofreading course and our copy-editing course.
But just in case these desperately silly rumours on the net have put you off taking one of our stress-free courses I thought a few pointers wouldn’t go amiss.
The Hyphen is Very Small
The importance which attaches to the hyphen in the minds of those afflicted with a fixation on it is inversely proportional to its size: tiny! It is half the width of an en dash and therefore a quarter the width of an em dash. It must never be confused with either, nor them with it. There’s lots about dashes in the courses so I won’t spoil the fun.
Copy-editors’ and Proofreaders’ Decisions
1 If you have a house style which covers hyphenation follow it, however wrong-headed you think it might be.
2 If your author has been consistent in hyphenation go along with him or her.
3 Don’t change hyphenation for the sake of it. Many words may be hyphenated or not. A word may be in both forms in your dictionary. Check.
4 Take great care in Scotland! They do things differently there. (Eg to-day.)
5 For the full low-down/lowdown/low down on the hyphen and lots of other mind-bending bits of punctuation and grammar join us on a fun-packed proofreading and editing course.