Recently, I wrote about some changes to the AP Stylebook’s rules on hyphens. Specifically, I reported that AP is going lighter on them, arguing that if a hyphen doesn’t do anything to make a compound ...

Call me crazy. I'm dog-sitting this weekend, and we already have three dogs of our own. The visiting dog is a 1-year-old miniature beagle, and our beagle mix thinks he's a long-lost brother. They race ...

Hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes are frequently tested punctuation marks in government exam descriptive writing papers. Hyphens connect words, en dashes show ranges or relationships, and em dashes ...

Which is right: a backup plan, a back-up plan or a back up plan? How about a cutoff date, a cut-off date or a cut off date? A takeout menu, a take-out menu or a take out menu? The answer: There is no ...

Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. During the recent gathering of the American Copy Editors Society, a lot of “hyphen” jokes made the rounds. One was “Why we ...