Write It Well

If you get confused about whether to hyphenate a two-word phrase, try using numbers to help you remember.

Take a look at these correctly hyphenated two-word phrases in orange and the underlined nouns that follow them:

As mobile phones become bodily appendages for people worldwide, they too are emerging as instruments to verify identity. Google introduced its two-step process earlier this year. It sends a six-digit code to an application on a Google user’s cellphone to be entered along with a password.

Here are those same nouns and phrases, rearranged and correctly typed with no hyphens:

The process has two steps, and the code has six digits.

The usual rule is that you hyphenate a two-word phrase when it comes before a noun, and you omit the hyphen when a phrase with two words follows a noun.

If you forget that “before, but not after” rule, try thinking of a two-word phrase that includes a number. You can follow your instincts and avoid the odd-looking and incorrect hyphen in “The process has two-steps.”

In contrast, the correct hyphen in “The two-step process” looks natural to most writers. That’s how numbers can help you remember how to use hyphens correctly.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two chapters on punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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Have you ever seen a colon in a sentence that looked impressive but didn’t sound quite right? The main secret to using a colon correctly is to make sure it follows a word group that could stand on its own as a complete sentence.

Here are two correct examples from Mark Bittman’s amazing article and chart “The Holiday Finger-Food Combination Generator”:

You begin by providing a base: this might be crackers, or croutons (little toast squares, really), [or] hunks of sturdy bread or vegetables that can serve as containers.

Then you have a spread, perhaps better (if less attractively) described as “the glue”: hummus or other bean mashes; soft, creamy cheese; “caviars” of eggplant or olives; pestos of basil or walnut; guacamole; [or] creamed deviled eggs.

It’s correct to put a colon after each word group in orange because either group could stand on its own as a complete sentence:

• You begin by providing a base.
• Then you have a spread, perhaps better (if less attractively) described as “the glue.”

It would be incorrect to use a colon after a word group that couldn’t stand as a complete sentence (e.g., “You begin by: providing a base”).

A final tip is that if a colon follows words inside quotes, then the colon goes outside the quotes.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two chapters on punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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The Alexander Communications Group has written an article for its current Customer Communicator newsletter that quotes Write It Well President Natasha Terk on the importance of carefully written e-mail.

The article includes five important questions that professionals should keep in mind as they write e-mail to customers. Check out the article here for more tips on how employees and managers can make sure outgoing e-mail reflects well on their company’s image!

Very few business writers use hyphens correctly in two-word descriptive phrases. Here are some quick tips.

A technology writer adds and omits hyphens perfectly in this sentence:

At the start of this year, app-related search engines and stores were too big a mess for the mobile software industry to leave as is.

Hyphenate most two-word phrases only when they come before a noun.

• as-is software
• the software was left as is
• the app-related search engines
• the search engines are app related

Here are some exceptions to the rule. Don’t add a hyphen when a two-word phrase comes before a noun, but one of these factors applies:

• a two-word noun is well known (e.g., “real estate deal” or “mobile software industry” above)
• the first word is more, less, most, or least
• the first word ends in -ly

Following these hyphenation guidelines gives a rare touch of clarity and polish to business prose.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two chapters on punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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Here are two simple rules to keep track of commas in complex sentences:

1. Don’t use commas when removing words would change the meaning
2. Do use commas to set off word groups that only add extra details

Here’s a sentence with two correct commas and one incorrect comma:

Whole Foods began a weekly Twitter chat, for an hour every Thursday, to discuss topics such as holiday menu planning, with its followers.

The first two commas are correct because they surround a word group that does not change the sentence meaning. (Taking out those words would leave the intact idea, “Whole Foods began a weekly Twitter chat to discuss topics such as holiday menu planning.”)

The third comma is incorrect because the words “with its followers” are essential to tell the reader who was part of this Whole Foods Twitter discussion.

Since removing the words would leave the company discussing holiday menus with no one, here’s how the sentence should read:

Whole Foods began a weekly Twitter chat, for an hour every Thursday, to discuss topics such as holiday menu planning with its followers.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes a full chapter on commas. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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Bulleted lists are an excellent way to present complex business information clearly. Numbered items are better than bulleted items when you need to present an intricate sequence of steps.

This New York Times paragraph is a perfect example of information that cries out for a numbered list; just compare it to the reformatted version below.

Original

If you’re a business owner, a team coach or a performer who wants to keep everyone on Facebook apprised of your coming events, simply creating separate Facebook events for each one can be ineffective. These can get lost in the stream of events, making it hard for people to check for, say, your next game. As an alternative, use the Social Calendar app, which was not developed by Facebook. Go to facebook.com/SocialCalendar and click the Add to My Page link in the lower left corner. That will pop up a menu of pages you manage. Click Add to Page next to one or more pages, then click Close. Those pages will now include a Calendar link in their upper left corner, just below Wall, Info and Photos. Social Calendar is pretty smart — it will autocomplete the names of events you’ve already created, and if you type in an Address field, it will add a map link to the location on the calendar.

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Revised

If you’re a business owner, a team coach or a performer who wants to keep everyone on Facebook apprised of your coming events, simply creating separate Facebook events for each one can be ineffective. These can get lost in the stream of events, making it hard for people to check for, say, your next game. As an alternative, use the Social Calendar app, which was not developed by Facebook:

1. Go to facebook.com/SocialCalendar.

2. Click the Add to My Page link in the lower left corner. That will pop up a menu of pages you manage.

3. Click Add to Page next to one or more pages.

4. Then click Close.

Those pages will now include a Calendar link in their upper left corner, just below Wall, Info and Photos. Social Calendar is pretty smart — it will autocomplete the names of events you’ve already created, and if you type in an Address field, it will add a map link to the location on the calendar.

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In the original paragraph, the instructions are buried in a dense block of text, making it easy for readers to get confused or lost. The numbered list makes a clear sequence of steps stand out immediately.

Customers and clients can appreciate the clear guidance you offer in a chronologically numbered list. A little document planning on your part can boost their relief at your offering hassle-free, well-organized information.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two chapters on punctuation as well as tips for formatting a bulleted or numbered list. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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