Hyphens

1.  Use hyphens for “made up” words, made by linking words together.

Example:  a hard-to-get-to place

2.  Check compound words in the dictionary.

Find out if they are properly written as one word, two words, or hyphenated.

Examples:  roommate
goal line
color-blind

3.  To hyphenate words at the end of a line, check the dictionary for syllable breaks. 

• Never hyphenate a one syllable word.
  
• Never hyphenate so that just one letter stands alone.

• If you are writing on a computer you can adjust your settings for hyphenating or no hyphenating.
  Note:  If your computer finds a word it doesn’t know how to hyphenate, you must tell it what to do.  It may be simplest to just turn off the hyphenation.