1. SethG

    SethG Member

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    a grammar-and-punctuation book

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by SethG, Jul 2, 2016.

    Are the hyphens correct?

    a grammar-and-punctuation book
    a yes-or-no answer

    I think that in the following I could omit the hyphens; do you agree?

    assistant store manager trainee position
    chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream

    Thanks.
     
  2. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    Why do you think the first example needs hyphens?
     
  3. SethG

    SethG Member

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    No hyphens in the first, I guess.

    Are these two okay without hyphens?

    assistant store manager trainee position
    chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream
     
  4. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    Well, I was asking why you think there should be hyphens. It's nice to know your reasoning so that we can better help you.
     
  5. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I agree with @thirdwind - it'd be good to start seeing your reasoning behind all these questions. You shouldn't have to keep asking us what we think, you should be able to figure out a rule (or find the rule written by someone else) and apply it yourself.

    CMOS is a pretty dominant style guide for fiction writing, so you could consult http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/images/ch07_tab01.pdf

    I'd classify both of your first two as adjectival phrases, which means hyphens if they're before a noun.

    The latter two seem like extended versions of the compound noun rule, so CMOS says only hyphenate if Webster's says hyphenate.

    What's your motivation for all these hyphen questions? If you're training to be an editor, okay, you should know this stuff, but you should probably be learning it from a greater authority than a bunch of clowns on an internet forum. And if you're not going to be an editor, you'll HAVE an editor, right? So the editor will be able to help polish this kind of stuff up.

    I'm not saying it's not useful to understand grammar. But you seem to have an obsessive interest in hyphen rules, and it's kind of--mystifying, I guess.
     

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