Using Hyphens and Dashes Correctly: Instructional Video
Did you know that hyphens can only be used in specific circumstances and that they absolutely must be used in some cases? When and how should you use an "en" dash or an "em" dash, rather than a simple hyphen? The video below explains it all so you never misuse (or omit) a hyphen again.
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The transcript of this video appears below.
In this video, you’ll learn when to use hyphens between words, and when to use other punctuation such as dashes. Hyphens are used for clarity, but they are often used incorrectly. The hyphen looks like this, the tiny minus sign on your keyboard.
Hyphens are the shortest dash on your keyboard. They have very few uses, and the two most important are creating compound adjectives when they appear before the noun they modify, and clarifying words that could be misunderstood.
These are some common examples that you’ll see in nursing and medical texts, such as “evidence-based practice”, “follow-up appointment”, “post-implementation data collection”. You’ll see that these hyphenated red words appear before the noun they are modifying. The easiest way to remember what a compound adjective is, is to ask yourself, “What kind of practice is it?” Oh, it’s evidence-based practice. What kind of appointment is it, Oh, it’s a follow-up appointment. When the words describing the noun are compound, they need to be hyphenated when they appear before the noun.
Now here you’ll see that you do not use hyphens when combined words are not in front of or coming before the word that they modify. So, if you’re saying “The project was evidence based”, you do not hyphenate. Whereas if you were saying “evidence-based project” you would hyphenate.
Also note that there is no space between the hyphenated words, unless you are using multiple compound modifiers with the same base word. For example, “3- and 6-month measures” would be “3 hyphen space” and “6 hyphen no space month”. Pre- and post-implementation data would be “pre hyphen space and post hyphen no space implementation data.”
Now we have to talk about when hyphens are not used. They are not used to replace other forms of punctuation. Three common misuses are within headers in the text of a paper, setting off so-called “parenthetical” info that should really be set off by em dashes, and typing a range of years. I’ll go into detail about each of these mistakes separately. But just remember: Hyphens are only used for the reasons I already detailed: They are never used to replace other forms of punctuation (except the en dash, described in a bit).
The first example here is supposed to be a header in the text, like an APA level 3 header. But headers in APA only ever have periods, if they use any punctuation at all.
Here you’ll see a good opportunity to use what’s called an “em dash”, when you’re trying to set off text that is somewhat parenthetical in nature, meaning it is an example or something that you want to mention, but it isn’t a part of the natural flow of the sentence. Do not use hyphens in place of an em dash, unless you type two hyphens right next to each other. Word typically turns those into em dashes automatically.
Now for a range of years, most of us are going to be using a hyphen, even though it’s not correct. You want to use what’s called an “en dash”, which back in the day of type-setting was the width of the letter “n”. You make an en dash by clicking “Option” “hyphen” or alt-hyphen on your keyboard. You’ll notice that the hyphen turns into this longer dash that you’ll see there.
Misused hyphens are really distracting and make your paper difficult to read. To avoid such problems, use hyphens correctly. Use the APA or AMA manuals of style to access comprehensive hyphen rules and lists of commonly hyphenated words.
In this video, you’ll learn when to use hyphens between words, and when to use other punctuation such as dashes. Hyphens are used for clarity, but they are often used incorrectly. The hyphen looks like this, the tiny minus sign on your keyboard.
Hyphens are the shortest dash on your keyboard. They have very few uses, and the two most important are creating compound adjectives when they appear before the noun they modify, and clarifying words that could be misunderstood.
These are some common examples that you’ll see in nursing and medical texts, such as “evidence-based practice”, “follow-up appointment”, “post-implementation data collection”. You’ll see that these hyphenated red words appear before the noun they are modifying. The easiest way to remember what a compound adjective is, is to ask yourself, “What kind of practice is it?” Oh, it’s evidence-based practice. What kind of appointment is it, Oh, it’s a follow-up appointment. When the words describing the noun are compound, they need to be hyphenated when they appear before the noun.
Now here you’ll see that you do not use hyphens when combined words are not in front of or coming before the word that they modify. So, if you’re saying “The project was evidence based”, you do not hyphenate. Whereas if you were saying “evidence-based project” you would hyphenate.
Also note that there is no space between the hyphenated words, unless you are using multiple compound modifiers with the same base word. For example, “3- and 6-month measures” would be “3 hyphen space” and “6 hyphen no space month”. Pre- and post-implementation data would be “pre hyphen space and post hyphen no space implementation data.”
Now we have to talk about when hyphens are not used. They are not used to replace other forms of punctuation. Three common misuses are within headers in the text of a paper, setting off so-called “parenthetical” info that should really be set off by em dashes, and typing a range of years. I’ll go into detail about each of these mistakes separately. But just remember: Hyphens are only used for the reasons I already detailed: They are never used to replace other forms of punctuation (except the en dash, described in a bit).
The first example here is supposed to be a header in the text, like an APA level 3 header. But headers in APA only ever have periods, if they use any punctuation at all.
Here you’ll see a good opportunity to use what’s called an “em dash”, when you’re trying to set off text that is somewhat parenthetical in nature, meaning it is an example or something that you want to mention, but it isn’t a part of the natural flow of the sentence. Do not use hyphens in place of an em dash, unless you type two hyphens right next to each other. Word typically turns those into em dashes automatically.
Now for a range of years, most of us are going to be using a hyphen, even though it’s not correct. You want to use what’s called an “en dash”, which back in the day of type-setting was the width of the letter “n”. You make an en dash by clicking “Option” “hyphen” or alt-hyphen on your keyboard. You’ll notice that the hyphen turns into this longer dash that you’ll see there.
Misused hyphens are really distracting and make your paper difficult to read. To avoid such problems, use hyphens correctly. Use the APA or AMA manuals of style to access comprehensive hyphen rules and lists of commonly hyphenated words.