English is a tricky language: there are some writing styles, spelling choices, etc., that are neither wrong nor right, nor are they more correct than any other decision. But there’s often a thin line between what’s passable and what’s not, and that thin line is called a hyphen.
Things like hyphenated and compound adjectives, then, can make copywriting pretty complicated and can lead to a slew of issues if you don’t know what you’re doing.
So, when to use a hyphen?
I come across this issue way too much, so I wanted to take some time to talk about the rules associated with hyphens and compound words, as well as when something called “mediator’s choice” comes into play.
Is something state of the art, or is it state-of-the-art? Both are right, but it depends on the context. If you say, “she’s using state-of-the-art technology,” hyphens are necessary. But to say, “that technology is state of the art,” you don’t use hyphens. Why?
“State of the art” by itself is a noun. But when it comes before another noun, it’s then modifying the noun that comes after, making it a compound adjective.
Compound adjectives most often come in two forms: they are either words that are normally nouns being used as an adjective, or they are a group of two or more typically unassociated nouns arranged together to describe another noun.
Board certified versus board-certified is another good example. A doctor is board certified. But she is also a board-certified doctor. See the difference?
The same is true of compound words. But many compound words are, more or less, informal inventions that have come into common vernacular. Thus, some may choose to write them as hyphenated words, and others may choose to write them as one word.
Think of the word turnaround. This used to be written as “turn-around time,” but has become so common that now it’s a word all its own, separate from the phrase “turn around,” that describes a very specific business practice.
In such cases, where one word choice may be as correct as another, mediator’s choice plays a huge role in whether what you’re saying sounds right. Consider “board-certified” once more: choosing whether to use it with or without a hyphen is up to the way you build the sentence, and that’s mediator’s choice.
At the end of the day, it’s important that your team stick to one dictionary and one style guide as their home source for spelling, grammar, and style. At the end of the day, the most important thing is consistency, because nothing makes you look worse than using two different spellings or constructions of the same word or phrase, even though both may technically be correct.
So in summary its the mediator’s choice of when to use a hyphen and when not to use a hyphen. To use a hyphen or not to use a hyphen, this is the question! AKA a play on the famous words of Shakespeare from the famous play Hamlet. In all seriousness though, if your compound word is changing the noun then use a hyphen, in most other cases consider dropping the hyphen. If the use of hyphen sounds very difficult consider hiring our team, and let us handle the work for you.
That’s why our copywriting team at Sack Lunch Agency always makes a concentrated effort to stick to the rules, or at least stay consistent in our mediator’s choice, and we’ll always work closely with you so that your copy is correct as ordered. As a branding, printing, and social media and web design agency all under one roof (in Delray Beach), we have eyes on your perfect dish from creation all the way to implementation to make sure the wording is just as you like it: without any grammatical errors.
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