Q. What is the appropriate way to handle a compound formed with an abbreviation upon its first mention? For example, in “the first Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved delivery by unmanned aircraft,” where does the hyphen go to form the compound “FAA-approved delivery”—after (FAA) or after Administration? I would prefer to rewrite this sentence but am not able to in this instance.
A. I’m sorry, but a hyphen (or an en dash, which would be required with the spelled-out compound proper noun) may not follow a closing parenthesis. If you are not able to rewrite, you are stuck with a bad sentence.