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I remember being scolded by my managing editor many years ago: Never hyphenate between an adverb and the adjective it modifies! It's a common mistake. The adverb cannot modify a noun, so it has to modify the adjective.
The rule (which varies depending on style preferences) is only for compound adjectives and adjective-noun combinations. Many style preferences, though, require the hyphen only when the combination could be misinterpreted without it. (Eg. high school student. Is the school student high? Or does the student attend high school?)
tims
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+tslager=isdcorporation -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+tslager=isdcorporation -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Richard Mateosian
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 4:31 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Common grammar question
This rule may be too broad, depending on what you mean by "serving as
a single adjective." If I say that Macbeth is a deeply flawed
character, I certainly don't need a hyphen. Or here's one I often see
hyphenated, but I wouldn't: His operation ran like a well oiled
machine. ...RM
On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Susan W Gallagher <susanwg -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
Richard Mateosian <xrm -at- pacbell -dot- net>
Berkeley, California
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