Exceptions and Gray Areas

          Hyphens are so tricky! For example, I can say, “My daughter is one year old.” No hyphen. But I can also say, “I have a one-year-old daughter." HYPHEN! Kessler and McDonald even say to consult the AP Stylebook because “there are so many exceptions that you will never guess right all the time!” That’s encouraging, isn’t it? I think these are especially difficult because the clause that may or may not include a hyphen can be written in many different ways (like the example about age I provided above). One especially frustrating prefix is “re-.” It is helpful to remember that if the word that follows begins with the same vowel, the hyphen is necessary (e.g. re-examine).

            There are a lot of rules about commas, but I wanted to write specifically about the rule that governs coordinating conjunctions (e.g. or, and, nor, but, yet, and so).  These words are used between two complete sentences.  Kessler and McDonald say that if the sentence is short and simple, the comma may be omitted.  I found this interesting because I have always felt uncomfortable putting a comma in a short sentence that makes sense without it, but I always thought it was required. It’s kind of frustrating that there is not a hard-and-fast rule and that it boils down to journalistic preference.

            However, sometimes no matter how short a sentence may be, a comma or the absence thereof can change its meaning. To illustrate this principle, I have included an amusing meme. Enjoy. J