Re: use of hyphens

["Lurker writer" <lurker_writer -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Jane's response, "It depends" will work in most situations.

But consider the two different contexts in this sentence:

"Watch out for that man eating shark!" Are you referencing a carnivorous 
elasmobranch (a genus consisting of cartilagenous creatures)in close 
proximity or someone's choice of seafood dish at dinner?

"Watch out for that man-eating shark!" adds the proper context (if indeed 
you are speaking of Carcaradon carcarious (great-white shark)...

"Man Eating Shark Dies off of Santa Monica Pier" here's a headline with the 
same problem. Who died? The shark or the man eating it?

Sentence or headline, hyphens clarify the context.




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