[Hong Kong - September 18, 2017] During the course of proofreading or editing, the use of the hyphen inevitably occurs. They might seem innocuous but can actually be quite tricky, and are often misused or left out completely. It’s certainly not a problem unique to editing in Hong Kong. Simply put, the hyphen’s main function is to join two words together. They indicate that two or more elements in a sentence are linked; and while there are rules regarding their use, there are also situations where writers and editors must decide whether or not to add them for clarity.
Now onto the nitty-gritty (see, there’s a hyphen right there!).
When two or more words come before a noun they need to be hyphenated as they modify the noun and act as a single idea. This is called a compound adjective. For example, “a check-in desk” or “editor-in-chief”. The words ‘check’ and ‘in’ stop acting as individual ideas and become one. However, when the compound adjective follows the noun you do not hyphenate. As in, “the desk where you check in”. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be English and there wouldn’t be a need for editors and proofreaders if there weren’t exceptions to the rule. As such, there are some compound adjectives that are always hyphenated, regardless of their position. For example “state-of-the-art” is hyphenated before and after a compound adjective.
Generally, a good way for a writer or editor to check whether or not a hyphen is required is to see if the sentence would make sense without one of the words. For example, ‘a high-school student’, where high-school is the compound adjective. Without the hyphen combining ‘high’ and ‘school’, ‘school’ could be removed and it would become ‘a high student’, and that would have a totally different meaning!
Unfortunately, there is another exception to the rule, and that’s with words ending in -ly. In this instance, because misinterpretation is unlikely, the hyphen in unnecessary. As in, “a highly skilled employee”. If the -ly is part of a larger compound adjective however, you still use a hyphen. For example, “a not-so-poorly-produced film”.
This may all come across as a little daunting to the uninitiated, or those of you in Hong Kong with English as your second language, but as editors, that’s what we are here for. We’re here to proofread or edit your work and make sure that you don’t make any grammar or punctuation mistakes in your writing. After all, as a writer, you have a lot more important things to worry about, such as plot, character development, and motivation. Let us do the editing, you do the writing.
Coming soon, we will be writing a comprehensive guide on when and where to use hyphens.
