1. “The program offers student-directed and student-initiated research- and discovery-based learning opportunities.”

2. “The plan includes accidental death and dismemberment coverage.”

3. “The businessman-turned-candidate spoke about his religious beliefs.”

4. “Maybe the country just doesn’t want a my way or the highway Texan in the White House again.”

5. “Travel to near-space in a 400-foot diameter balloon.”

6. “He all-but-lectured the lawmakers assembled.”

7. “The rainbow flag flew at half-staff to honor Elizabeth Taylor, the Hollywood-star-and icon to gays who died in March.”

Answers

1. This hyphen-saturated sentence, though technically correct (though to be fair but awkward, the second mention of the word student should be elided), reads better when it is relaxed: “The program, based on research and discovery, allows students to direct and initiate their own learning opportunities.” “Student-directed and -initiated” and “research- and discovery-based” are proper examples of suspensive hyphenation, but the double-suspension string “student-directed and (student)-initiated research- and discovery-based” is excessive.

2. As written, this sentence implies that the coverage is accidental. But the coverage presumably protects against two possibilities: accidental death, and dismemberment, so the phrase “accidental death” should be hyphenated to signal that the constituent words combine to modify coverage, and because the insurance also applies to nondeliberate dismemberment, that word should be preceded by a suspended hyphenation.

However, because no insurance company hyphenates this phrase in its literature, I’m inclined to request, as in the previous example, at least a relaxed rewrite that obviates hyphenation: “The plan includes coverage in case of accidental death and dismemberment.”

3. When the verb turned stands between a word describing a former state and one referring to a current state, unlike as is the case with the similarly employed conjunction cum (“with”), no hyphenation is necessary: “The businessman turned candidate spoke about his religious beliefs.”

4. The word string defining what kind of Texan the subject is must be corralled into one group, either with quotation marks that imply that the sentiment is literally or figuratively stated, or with multiple hyphens: “Maybe the country just doesn’t want a my-way-or-the-highway Texan in the White House again.”

5. This sentence manages two hyphenation errors within its ten-word length. Near is often erroneously attached to the following noun; hyphenation is correct only when near and the following word form a phrasal adjective modifying a third term, as in “near-space tourist travel” (where the open compound “tourist travel” is an noun phrase).

Also, the half-hearted hyphenation that follows implies the existence of an odd item referred to as a diameter balloon; this one apparently has 400 five-toed appendages. The phrase should be revised to correctly reflect that the balloon is 400 feet in diameter: “Travel to near space in a 400-foot-diameter balloon.”

6. The modifying phrase “all but” needs not be attached to the verb, nor do the two words in that phrase require connection: “He all but lectured the lawmakers assembled.”

7. Half-staff, like its synonym half-mast (often erroneously used in nonmaritime contexts), is correctly hyphenated. The hyphenation error occurs later in the sentence, when the writer, confused about how to construct the gloss of Elizabeth Taylor, loses steam near the end. The phrase “Hollywood star and icon to gays,” however, requires no connective tissue: “The rainbow flag flew at half-staff to honor Elizabeth Taylor, the Hollywood star and icon to gays who died in March.”

The theme is the same: punctuation.

For those who can’t see the image, here’s what it says:

An English professor wrote the words:

“A woman without her man is nothing”

on the chalkboard he asked the students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the males in the class wrote:

“A woman, without her man, is nothing.”

All of the females in the class wrote:

“A woman: without her, man is nothing.”

Punctuation is powerful.

I also wanted to thank all the readers who sent ideas and images. If you want to send one simply email it to info@dailywritingtips.com.

For those who can’t see the image, the first line says: “Let’s eat grandma!”. The second line says: “Let’s eat, grandma!”. And the conclusion: “Punctuation saves lives!”.

If you have similar images about the English language and want to see them featured on the blog you can send them to info@dailywritingtips.com. We might make this a regular column.

First, by the way, note that the founder of National Punctuation Day, a freelance business-newsletter writer named Jeff Rubin, sponsors a Punctuation Paragraph Contest. The only rule is that you must write one paragraph, maximum of three sentences, using these punctuation marks: apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, ellipsis, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, and semicolon. (You may use a punctuation mark more than once.) Send your entry to the email address at Rubin’s Web site by September 30, 2011.

1. Apostrophe Abuse
Tagline: Links and visuals illustrating an orthographic pet peeve.

2. Apostrophe Catastrophes
Tagline: The Worlds’ Worst. Punctuation;

3. The Apostrophe Protection Society
Tagline: Examples of misuse of the apostrophe as seen by you!

4. The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
Tagline: none

5. English Fail Blog
Tagline: Public Butcherings of the English Language

6. The Gallery Of “Misused” Quotation Marks
Tagline: none

7. GrammarBlog
Tagline: Mocking poor grammar since 2007

8. The Grammar Vandal
Tagline: Taking it to the streets and correcting America, one comma at a time.

9. The Great Typo Hunt
Tagline: none

10. Wordsplosion
Tagline: Showcasing the best of the worst of the wide world of words

No comma is needed between a month and a year: “The meeting was held in August 2011.” The same form is correct for referring to a holiday during a certain year: “I haven’t seen her since Christmas 2005.” However, set the year off from the month and day: “She attended the August 31, 2011, meeting.”

Use a comma to set a day off from the date on which the particular day falls: “The meeting was held on Wednesday, August 31.” A continuation of the sentence requires a second comma: “The meeting was held on Wednesday, August 31, and the report was issued the following week.”

No comma is required between a date and a starting time for an event on that date: “The meeting is scheduled for August 31 at 7 p.m.” A continuation of the sentence requires no punctuation unless a new independent clause is introduced: “The meeting is scheduled for August 31 at 7 p.m. and is expected to last for three hours,” but “The meeting is scheduled for August 31 at 7 p.m., and it is expected to last for three hours.”

However, as in the second example in the second paragraph, the combination of day, date, and time requires organizational punctuation: “The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 31, at 7 p.m.”

“The meeting is scheduled for August 31, 7-9 p.m.” (Print publications should use an en dash for the time range; some online publications do so, too.) A comma should follow the time range if the sentence continues: “The meeting is scheduled for August 31, 7-9 p.m., and will feature a guest speaker.” A reference to day, date, and time requires commas between each pair of elements: “The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 31, 7-9 p.m.” (And don’t precede a time range with from: It’s either “7-9 p.m.” or “from 7 to 9 p.m.”)