During a long-ago writers’ group critique of my work, one of the members decided to debate hyphen usage in compound adjectives. It was quite annoying because it took away from the real mission of the group: to provide ways to make each member’s writing better. It was not a grammar class.
So as to avoid your own lengthy and off-topic discussions during your own writers’ group, here is the 411 on compound adjectives:
• When they are used before a noun, they are hyphenated as in...
problem-solving technique
• If the compound adjective follows the noun, no hyphen is needed as in…
a technique for problem solving
• If one of the modifiers is an adverb ending in –ly, then drop the hyphen as in...
gently laid blanket
That’s the quick lesson for the day in the event you find yourself engaged in a debate about hyphen use with compound adjectives.
interesting, I can't say I have thought much about hyphenation of compound adjectives. I wonder what's lurking in my pages... lol
ReplyDelete