Not so highly qualified to write!

 Not so highly qualified to write!

You can find this posted today (July 9, 2013) at  regarding Los Angeles Dodgers rookie sensation Yasiel Puig: 

He's a highly-touted prospect who is giving off a potent "man among boys" vibe.

One would think an organization as prominent as ESPN employs only good editors and superior writers, but you wouldn't know it judging by the sentence above. It contains a freshmanic (yes, it's a word; look it up) grammar error that's so egregious and basic (it's taught in most U.S. high schools) it doesn't even rise to the level of sophomoric. Hence the freshmanic designation.


What am I talking about? It's the incorrect use of a dash after highly, as in highly-touted.



As any sound journalist or expert    in English grammar knows, adverbs that end in -ly never take a dash to link them to the next word. You never hyphenate them when constructing a compound modifier.
 


Why?



Well, the purpose of hyphenating compound modifiers is to avoid ambiguity or confusion, to make it clear what a word is modifying. A great example is small-business owners. You hyphenate it to ensure that readers understand we are talking about owners of small businesses. Without the hyphen, a reader easily could read it as business owners who are small. Unless we are truly talking about a group of short entrepreneurs, the hyphen is necessary.


A few more examples:


1) He's a third-grade student. The word third describes (or modifies) the grade, not the student. He's not a third student. He's a student in the third grade.


  One key to determining when to hyphenate the compound modifiers is to try each of the modifiers by itself and see if the writing still makes any sense. Let's see: He's a third student. Nope. That's illogical, as we are not counting or quantifying anyone here. He's a grade student. Nope. Just as illogical. Therefore, first and grade work here only as a compound modifier and should be linked with a hyphen. He's a third-grade student.


This rule doesn't always work (in small-business owner, it still makes some sense just saying a business owner), but it's a great guide to use 90% of the time. 


2) A little-known man. Again, the words used as a compound modifier function only when linked together. Take either word out and it makes no sense. A little man? Not at all what we mean, as this is about fame, not height. A known man? Not nearly accurate enough, for we are stressing that he's NOT known by many. Therefore, you must hyphenate them as a compound modifier.


3) A full-time job. Is it getting easier as you spot the obvious pattern? It's not a full job we are referring to (like a gas tank with an E and F on each end) and it's certainly not a time job (even if it involves making clocks or watches!). It's a full-time ordeal, with full modifying time, not job. So the hyphen is necessary here, too.


So why do adverbs that end in -ly (quickly, highly, efficiently, thoughtfully, etc.) not need that same hyphenation? The easy answer is that there should be no confusion     as to what the adverb is modifying.

Here's what the Associated Press Stylebook says about it in the hyphen entry in the Punctuation Guide in the back of the book (the use of italics is by AP, not me):

The principle of using a hyphen to avoid confusion explains why no hyphen is required with -ly words. Readers can expect them to modify the word that follows. But if a combination such as little-known man were not hyphenated, the reader could logically be expecting little to be followed by a noun, as in little man. Instead, the reader encountering little known would have to back up mentally and make the compound connection on his own.

Therefore, we don't use hyphens in the following constructions: 

A skillfully trained chemist
A fully operational facility
A superbly prepared soldier
A physically fit adolescent
A highly skilled technician
A fundamentally flawed theory
A finely tuned engine
A recently disbarred lawyer
A genuinely remorseful ex-convict

As you can see if you read them out loud, they are easily understood and, unlike the compound modifiers that need each other to make sense, you can use the second modifier by itself without losing the basic meaning of the word/phrase:

Let's use A fully operational facility as the example. It still makes sense to say it's an operational facility, though of course fully gives it deeper meaning (which is the point of using the adverb in the first place).


Just to be sure, do we all know just what an adverb    is? From Merriam Webster's online dictionary comes the following:

¹ad·verb

noun \ˈad-ˌvərb\

Definition of ADVERB

: a word belonging to one of the major form classes in any of numerous languages, typically serving as a modifier of a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a preposition, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence, expressing some relation of manner or quality, place, time, degree, number, cause, opposition, affirmation, or denial, and in English also serving to connect and to express comment on clause content — compare adjunct, conjunct, disjunct

See adverb defined for English-language learners »

See adverb defined for kids »

Examples of ADVERB

1. In “arrived early,” “runs slowly,” “stayed home,” and “works hard” the words “early,” “slowly,” “home,” and “hard” are adverbs.

²adverb

adjective

YouTube also has several of the classic "Schoolhouse Rock" videos, and several of them deal with adverbs. Believe it or not, they are actually very instructional and fun, and most last no longer than four minutes. Even though they were meant for young viewers, I extremely highly recommend them to anyone, especially if you want a refresher on some basic grammar and some clever ways to remember certain rules and definitions. Here is a link to one of the "Lolly, lolly, lolly, get your adverbs here!"  videos:       


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14fXm4FOMPM


Do we all understand now?

Someone criticized me for writing what he/she called "too much" about each subject. "Why can't you just tell us in a few paragraphs and get right to the point?" 

My reply is that too many journalists and writers apparently have the same attention span and aren't willing to take the time to learn proper writing and editing, even though it's their profession. Or perhaps they never came across a blog like mine that took the time to go into detail, offering examples and breaking down the subject to try to make readers understand better just WHY they might be committing a certain type of error. Without such proper instruction, they are doomed to repeating those errors.

I don't get a cent/euro from any of this. Sure, I hope it helps me in my career pursuits. But in the end I do it in a sincere effort to share tips to better writing and editing.

And as ESPN and many others (I love you, Stan Lee,    but I've seen hundreds of your 1960s stories in Marvel Comics wrongly hyphenate -ly adverbs, spell judgment as judgement and other atrocities -- if only you had hired ME as an editor!) have demonstrated, such teaching is badly needed    (      proper use of -ly!).


It's time to wrap it up. 

 

 

My next post will explore the mystery of the missing the. You'll just have to check back in a day or two to find the answer. Stay tuned ...