Walden University Writing Center

Where instructors and editors talk writing.

By Jeff Zuckerman, Writing Center Director

It was the dog days of August. I sat my dog Toby down to discuss hyphens. Again.

Hyphens! he barked. Quit dogging the real problems!

Toby said he was dog-tired of the dog food that he said I buy dog-cheap. Even those doggy bones, he whined, that I had brought home in the doggy bag from the fast-food joint had a crummy hot-dog taste.

Well, that’s a dog’s life for you, I said.

Just a doggone minute, Toby said. I’m dog-sick of those invisible dog fences. And don’t tell me it’s a dog-eat-dog world. It’s a dog-eat-squirrel world.

Yes, I said, the world has sure gone to the dogs. Now can we talk about hyphens?

Bow-wow, Toby replied, and retired to his doghouse for a dognap.

Well, here’s the lesson we would have discussed.

Toby Principle 1: Look it up in a good dictionary, especially Merriam-Webster’s. The phrase dog days is two words. A doghouse is one word. Dog-tired is listed as hyphenated, despite Principle 3 below.

APA Style Principle 2: Use a hyphen if a compound adjective expresses a single thought. A hot dog taste could be read as a very warm taste of fresh dog. A hot-dog taste would be the taste of a hot dog.
So be careful: An invisible-dog fence would enclose an invisible dog. An invisible dog fence is a fence you can’t see.

APA Style Principle 3: Most compound adjectives are hyphenated only before the noun they modify. A short-legged corgi, but the corgi was short legged. A hyphen-challenged fox terrier, but the fox terrier was hyphen challenged. A canine-cleaning brush, but a brush made for canine cleaning. A dog-eat-dog world, but a world in which it’s every man or woman for himself or herself.

APA Style Principle 4: Most words formed with prefixes are one word: antihero, bipolar, codependent, megalomania, metacognition, pretest, unreliable.

Toby Principle 5: Adverbs ending in –ly plus a participle or adjective are generally not hyphenated: doggedly tired Scottie, utterly useless cat.

Toby Principle 6: Hyphenate a number combined with an adjective before a noun. A 9-year-old cockapoo, but a cockapoo that is 9 years old. A 300-page APA manual, but the manual is 300 pages long.

Questions about hyphenation or APA style? Visit Walden’s online writing center for APA style tutorials.

Questions about prairie dog grammar? Check out the work of Dr. Constantine Slobodchikoff of Northern Arizona University.

By Jeff Zuckerman, Writing Center Director

I have always said that even experienced editors need editors.
I know that’s true because I’ve been editing for about 25 years and somehow still manage at least once a day to goof up a spelling in an email message. I do my best to model good writing habits but I know somewhere out there is a student who read a Word document of mine with a balloon comment reading, “Be carful with your spelling.”
* * *
It’s true, you know. Even good editors need editors.
I’ve been editing for 25 years and still manage at least once a day to goof up a spelling. I do my best to model good writing habits, but somewhere out there is a student who read a Word document with a balloon comment reading, “Carful with your spelling.”
* * *
Even good editors need editors.
I’ve been editing for 25 years, and at least once a day I screw up a spelling in an email message. I try to model good writing habits, but somewhere out there an author has read a balloon comment of mine reading, “Carful with your spelling.”
* * *
Even editors need editors.
I’ve been editing for 25 years. Writing and revising even a simple paragraph can be painful. Yesterday I sent off a manuscript with this balloon comment: “See how cutting 10 needless words improved readability? Also, use your spelchecker.”

By Amber Cook, Senior Writing Specialist

There’s a gym not far from my house. The gym’s marquee last week read like this:

NO CONTRACT MEMBERSHIPS
AVAILABLE

Now, it’s certainly possible that this gym has run out of contract memberships: Perhaps they had memberships that require a contract, and there are no more available. If you’ve ever been to a gym, though, you probably know that contracts are pretty much always available. Just TRY to join a gym without signing one.

It’s probably safe to assume, then, that this gym intended to advertise no-contract memberships (memberships that do not require a contract). Here, that teeny-tiny missing hyphen means the difference between turning customers away and inviting them to try a new type of membership.

Granted, not every driver passing that sign last week was a grammar nerd like me. Maybe most readers made the same assumption I did, mentally supplying the needed hyphen. In communicating, though, one goal is to reach as many people as possible with the clearest possible message. Even if only 20% of the readers were confused by the missing hyphen, that’s still a significant loss of potential customers.

The next time you’re passing by the marquee in front of your workplace (or any other public written work that represents your company), try to see it from the perspective of your potential consumer. Perhaps you can catch an error that will lead to more business. Who knew good grammar could be so profitable?

By Jamie Patterson, Writing Specialist

One of my favorite residency sessions is a 90 minute grammar class that includes a lot of references to pop culture. At the end of the session we include a picture quiz where we ask students to identify the incorrect grammar on a store sign, on a billboard, or in a song. Sometimes we even use celebrity messages to their fans. Is it completely fair to apply grammar and APA rules outside of the classroom? Maybe not. But there are advantages to recognizing the dissonance between the writing standards expected here at Walden and what you are exposed to in your life outside of the university.

Many of the points we go over in this grammar class are meant to be friendly reminders of rules we’ve been learning since our grade school years. In fact, many EdD students leave this grammar class and comment that they’d like to use the same presentation in their own elementary school classrooms. Should it be alarming to you, as graduate students, that material we’re teaching at the graduate level is relevant at your local grade school? I hope not.

Grammar rules are much like APA rules: Many of them should be accessible to the earliest level of learners. After all, including a serial comma was never meant to be rocket science. It was, however, meant to ensure clarity and accessibility to thought. This becomes increasingly more important as you take on multidimensional and complicated research to affect social change.

Considering the accessibility of grammar rules, why is it that even your local grocery store has signs that say “10 items or less” when less should be replaced with fewer? Why are there signs posted that say “no pets, shirts & shoes required” (Better: No pets. Shirts & shoes required)? Why would Christina Aguilera tell fans “Today is a joyful and special day for Jordan and I” (should be Jordan and me)?

We might have been exposed to many of these grammar rules at an early age but there are as many grammar rules as there are words. Pop culture and our everyday environment certainly don’t help us in our struggle to understand the nuances of language rules. For those of us who have dedicated our professional, academic, and personal lives to the craft of writing there is still something new to learn every day. Take advantage of our expertise and drop in on one of our classes at an upcoming residency or email us with questions: writingsupport@waldenu.edu. I’ll tell you now what we tell the students at the end of our residency session on grammar: Being a grammarian is being aware of the details that surround us on a daily basis. Being aware of details is bound to make you a better student, a better researcher, and (our hope) a better writer.

by Brian Timmerman, Senior Writing Specialist

For me, writing is really all about prep work. In fact, I’m guessing that I’ve spent more time preparing to write than I actually have writing. Have a look at my prewriting rituals below and give ‘em a shot. I think they’ll save you some time and anguish.

Take Careful Notes

While reading, make sure that you’re taking copious notes on what interests you. I find it helpful to group these notes by subject as well. This way, I’ll be able to physically see the connections I’m making between the materials I’ve read.
I’d also suggest that you provide a citation (author, year, page number) for every note that you take. This way, returning to the text won’t entirely interrupt the writing process.

Synthesize

Next, you’ll want to synthesize all the literature you’ve read. If you grouped your notes together, this should be easy. What does each individual grouping suggest? Write down a sentence for each. You’ll then want to synthesize again. What is the collective suggestion once you’ve combined all the grouped sentences? Remember too that you don’t have to include everything you’ve learned during this process. There’s nothing wrong with abandoning some of your reading if you find that it doesn’t contribute to a collective whole.

Construct a Thesis

Once you have a good idea of what the literature says (you should have discovered this during the synthesis process), you should be able to construct a thesis, essentially an argument that’s grounded in literature.

Organize the Paper

You’re almost there. To ensure that you’ll have a tightly focused paper, go ahead and outline it before you begin writing it. Start with the thesis in the first paragraph (Point A), the conclusion (Point B) in the last, and then organize your grouped notes to most logically get from Point A to Point B.