Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Hyphens in the news

Or disappearing from the news. In The New Yorker, Mary Norris writes about the 2019 American Copy Editors Society Conference. New directions in hyphenation for the AP Stylebook: No hyphen in terms such as “African American.” No hyphen in “third grade teacher” and “chocolate chip cookie.” And:

The hyphen has been removed from double-“E” combinations, such as “preeclampsia,” “preelection,” “preeminent,” “preempt,” “reenter,” etc. If you find these difficult to read, The New Yorker has a solution: next year, consider the diaeresis.
Reëducation, I guess.

[I for one will always hyphenate “third-grade teacher.” And “high-school student.”]

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