Hyphen Nation?

Maybe if I lived in a French-Canadian city, or somewhere such as Winston-Salem, Wilkes-Barre or even Fuquay-Varina, I might be natural fan of hyphens. As it is, I have to pause and cogitate every time I use one, fearful that I am making a punctuation faux pas. Judging by writing I see day after day, I just don’t think America is a hyphen nation. I’d go so far as to say that we seem to have a love-hate relationship with hyphens, and we aren’t too crazy about dashes either.

My beloved AP Stylebook describes hyphens as “joiners.” Lest you jump to the conclusion that hyphens like to be dues-paying members of clubs and associations like Hyphens without Borders, Habitat for Hyphens, or the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Hyphens, AP Style offers this clarification: “Use hyphens only when not using them causes confusion.” Say what?

Here’s an example: you hyphenate small-business owner, because without the hyphen a reader might think you’re describing a business owner who is short. Got it. But there’s another rule that rightly confounds many people I know. You should hyphenate two words that express a single concept when used as a compound modifier in front of a noun. Before you flash back to your pimply self in middle school grammar class and quit reading, here’s a confusion-free example: you hyphenate fourth quarter when it describes a noun in a sentence such as this: “He scored a fourth-quarter touchdown.” Nix the hyphen if you write “He scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter.” For the same reason, you would write, “She is a well-known woman,” but also “She is also a woman who is well respected” (no hyphen).

I would like to cautiously reveal that if an adverb ends in –ly, you never hyphenate it in front of a noun. But if I add that tidbit, I’m afraid you’ll ride me out of town on a rail, straight toward frosty-cold Minneapolis-St. Paul. If your AP Stylebook happens to be at the cleaners, you can read more about hyphenation in the National Geographic Style Manual.