If you’ve ever found yourself confused about the difference between a dash and a hyphen, and when to use a hyphen, you’re far from alone. When you handwrite them, they probably look exactly the same.

Hyphen defenders (or is it hyphen-defenders?), take heart. The Associated Press is reversing some of its March 2019 guidance on how we use the wedding band of the punctuation world. “Thanks to input ...

Recently, I wrote about some changes to the AP Stylebook’s rules on hyphens. Specifically, I reported that AP is going lighter on them, arguing that if a hyphen doesn’t do anything to make a compound ...

The debate about ChatGPT’s use of the em dash signifies a shift in not only how we write, but what writing is for. By Nitsuh Abebe There are countless signals you might look for to determine whether a ...

The apparent problem is that AP refuses to set down “rules.” As the stylebook says, using hyphens “can be a matter of taste, judgment and style sense.” Judging by many of the Twitter reactions to the ...

Good questions have been piling up in my in-box lately. Ed in Albany had a question about a recent column in which I mentioned people "who just won't stop using the word 'over' wrong." Here's Ed: "Isn ...

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been giving this note to my editing clients: “Replace floating hyphen with proper em dash.” It comes up when I’m proofreading images, like PDFs, and I see a hyphen ...

Many people don't know there are different kinds of dashes. They often call a hyphen a dash — which, to an editor, is like calling a period a colon. In fact, there are an unnerving assortment of ...

Have you noticed that, lately, you're less inclined to stick a hyphen between words? That is, you're looking at a term like "a time honored tradition," realizing you could put a hyphen in ...

Hyphens are only used to combine certain words together. They are not strong enough to set off phrases or words from a sentence. Use hyphens in the following situations: Use in compound numbers and ...