Q. Dear CMS, I am nearly done revising my dissertation, but my advisor may not pass me on account of my lengthy em dashes! I am using Times New Roman, and apparently the em dashes are too long. Is the standard em dash in Times acceptable for thesis publication? If so, can I point my advisor to something in the CMS on this? (I am serious. I don’t think she would not pass me, but she has circled every em dash and said, “Too long. Fix!” on my drafts, and I’d like not to chance it.)
A. Well, that’s pretty crazy. For publication, it makes no difference what font is in the manuscript—typesetters follow the publisher’s specs, not a Word document or printout—but it looks as though you might have to change the font for your dissertation. Palatino has shorter em dashes than Times Roman, for instance. If you are required to use Times Roman, then change only the dashes to Palatino and maybe no one will notice. You can make a global replacement. Good luck!
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am editing a magazine article related to real estate and am struggling with how to hyphenate the descriptions. “With seven bedrooms, four full and two half bathrooms, this home has 6,000 square feet of living space.” Also, “This is a 2,000 square foot, fully renovated four bedroom, three and a half bathroom home.” What does CMOS suggest?
A. Thank you for asking! Reading real estate ads can be painful for us. Your first sentence is passable; the second one needs a lot of hyphens. Please refer to many such examples in the hyphenation table at CMOS 7.89. If a compound phrase (number + noun) serves as an adjective and comes before the noun it modifies, it usually needs hyphens:
a three-and-a-half-bathroom home
a four-bedroom townhouse
a 600-square-foot studio
a 2,000-square-foot, fully renovated four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom home
If the compound phrase (number + noun) serves as a noun itself and does not modify a noun that follows, it does not need hyphens:
a home with three and a half bathrooms
a townhouse with four bedrooms
a studio of 600 square feet
a home with seven bedrooms, four full and two half bathrooms, and 6,000 square feet of living space
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. If you are referring to a street address that includes two adjacent buildings, do you use an en dash or and between them? I’m working on a project that uses the following, and I’ve put in an en dash, but I’m wondering if and would be better: “the full interior renovation of 619–623 West 113th Street.”
A. If the two buildings are separate, and is a better way to indicate that. If one building takes up two lots, the en dash is appropriate.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. My staff and I encountered a phrase and there’s a bit of debate as to how to hyphenate it: Wall Street darling-ready. Some believe an en dash should be inserted between Street and darling, followed by the hyphen between darling and ready. Others, however, feel the addition of the en dash would make the phrase even more difficult to interpret for readers. Thoughts?
A. I’m sorry, but the phrase looks like nonsense; I don’t think you can save it by tacking on hyphens or dashes. Please rewrite the sentence and—as they say—murder your darling.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Is this a true phrasal adjective, in which case it should be hyphenated as shown, or should it not be hyphenated? “We offer innovative and technologically-advanced solutions.” There is a difference of opinions.
A. Although this is a phrasal adjective (an adjective, advanced, that is modified by an adverb, technologically), Chicago style does not hyphenate compound modifiers formed with adverbs ending in -ly. Please see CMOS 7.85 and 7.86.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. “One man-one woman family.” I’m editing a work and this looks wrong, but I can’t say why. Should it be a dash instead of a hyphen?
A. You’re right: the reason it looks wrong is that hyphens connect words to make phrases, and in your quotation, “man-one” doesn’t make sense as a phrase. The phrases you want to connect are “one man” and “one woman”: a one-man, one-woman family.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Is it necessary or preferred to hyphenate complex phrasal adjectives like “master-chef-turned-food-writer Anthony Bourdain describes the Tuscan countryside as . . .”? Or does CMS prefer “master chef turned food writer Anthony Bourdain describes the Tuscan countryside as . . .”? I am having a hard time seeing how anyone would misread the phrase without hyphens. Thanks for your help!
A. CMOS is silent on the issue. Although Merriam-Webster (s.v. “turn”) omits the hyphens in the noun (“doctors turned authors”), Chicago style favors hyphenating phrasal adjectives before a noun. If you’re certain the modifier is clear without hyphens, you might leave them out, but rephrasing is the best alternative to excessive hyphenation: “Anthony Bourdain, master chef turned food writer, describes the Tuscan countryside as . . .”
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Please settle an internal argument. Which punctuation is correct for the following title: “Transitioning to More-Rigorous Assessments” or “Transitioning to More Rigorous Assessments”?
A. Please see CMOS 7.89, section 2, under “adverb not ending in ly + participle or adjective” for a similar example (“most-skilled” versus “most skilled”). The hyphen affects the meaning, so you must choose accordingly. “More-Rigorous” refers to the quality of the assessments; “More Rigorous” could mean the same thing, or it could refer to a larger quantity of rigorous assessments. As always, rewording is better than relying on punctuation. “Making Assessments More Rigorous” and “Using Rigorous Assessments More Frequently” are clear.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I’m taking a popular online copyediting course. One of my answers to a quiz was marked wrong because I failed to identify “early-warning system” as an instance of incorrect hyphen usage. According to the answer key, this is incorrect because adverbs ending in -ly should not be followed with hyphens. I think early is used as an adjective in this example and should therefore take a hyphen.
A. You’re right. A hyphen after early may also be needed to prevent ambiguity: early voting statistics aren’t necessarily early-voting statistics.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Does hyphenation render a diaeresis redundant? Because it wrapped to another line, the word naïveté was rendered as na-ïveté. Should this appear in print as na-iveté?
A. No. Hyphenation imposed at line breaks in typesetting should be regarded as temporary and invisible rather than part of the word. You can bet that if a proofreader were to remove that diaeresis, in the next round someone else’s correction would cause the word to end up whole again. Better to leave well enough alone.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]