{"id":522,"date":"2009-02-22T08:25:06","date_gmt":"2009-02-22T14:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/hyphenation-book\/"},"modified":"2021-10-13T17:40:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T23:40:49","slug":"howtousehyphens","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/books\/howtousehyphens\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Hyphens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Correct Hyphenation Is Within Your Reach!<\/h2>\n

\"HowI don’t know whether this ever happened to you. Even as a long-time blogger about better communication, hyphenaton has sometimes stumped me.<\/p>\n

I know what it is like to write under daily pressure. I wrote a blog post daily for 600 days after I launched KirkMahoney.com on 17 October 2007.<\/p>\n

I have another confession. I do not have time for random searches about hyphenation rules, and I suspect that you do not have the time either.<\/p>\n

But, here is the kicker: There were no good books just about hyphenation rules!<\/p>\n

Oh, sure. There are books about punctuation that include a brief discussion about hyphens and hyphenation.<\/p>\n

But, nobody had bothered to create a complete book about hyphens and hyphenation mistakes until I wrote How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I wrote it for people like you and me.<\/p>\n

I wrote it because I wanted this information all in one place for my own reference. It can help you, too.<\/p>\n

How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong> gives you everything that you need \u2014 all in one place. You need not look for hyphenation advice scattered in millions of places across the Web.<\/p>\n

This is not your grandfather’s punctuation book! Instead, it is a fun, easy-to-read book that is full of mistakes.<\/p>\n

Oops, that did not come out right!<\/p>\n

What I mean is: How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong> uses mistakes to teach hyphenation rules.<\/p>\n

This book is not a sophisticated treatise on the linguistic nature of hyphenation.<\/p>\n

Instead, How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong> is a practical, down-to-earth guide to common mistakes made with hyphens.<\/p>\n

This book answers your hyphenation questions faster than almost any Web search could. (Who wants to spend time digging for help?)<\/p>\n

Isn’t working faster what you want?<\/p>\n

I much prefer to sit by my pool than to be stuck in my home office. Even if I am writing while sitting by the pool \u2014 which is not a bad way to work! \u2014 I do not want to waste time at my laptop that I can spend in the pool.<\/p>\n

What do you want from a book like this? Wouldn’t you say that your ultimate goals are mistake-free hyphenation and more free time?<\/p>\n

You might be wondering whether this is a serious book. In a sense, it is. I am serious about everything that I write, and I put a lot of work into this book.<\/p>\n

I mean, you do not earn a Ph.D. \u2014 no matter the field \u2014 without approaching what you write in a serious way.<\/p>\n

I refused, though, to write a pedantic tome about hyphenation.<\/p>\n

Instead, I wrote How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong> in the same style that I have written my blog posts at KirkMahoney.com. The books has a thoroughness balanced by simplicity and lightheartedness.<\/p>\n

May I tell you a secret? I had no idea that I would identify twenty-one hyphenation rules when I began my research.<\/p>\n

I expected to find maybe seven or eight common mistakes, so my initial plan was to write a long article for my website.<\/p>\n

But, the list of common mistakes kept growing!<\/p>\n

First, I had to make sure that I had identified all common mistakes that people make with hyphens. Next, I had to reorganize the mistakes into a sequence that would make sense to people like you and me.<\/p>\n

I astounded my wife, an English-language buff, when I told her that I had identified twenty-one rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cList Man\u201d is my wife’s pet name for me, so I was confident in my research. So, I knew that I had written a book that covered the bases. With twenty-one of them, that makes for an unusual baseball diamond!<\/p>\n

You now have an opportunity to enjoy all my hard work at a price that might make even a shoplifter blush.<\/p>\n

But, let me ask you some questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If you were desperate for someone’s telephone number, would you care whether you got it on an oil-stained napkin?<\/li>\n
  2. If you need actionable information, do you have time to sift through fluff just so that you feel that you are getting a good deal?<\/li>\n
  3. How practical is it to lug around yet another heavy book?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I formatted How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong> in a clean but simple fashion. My focus was on the content and presenting the content in an easy-to-access format.<\/p>\n

    I am not saying that How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong> is a bare-bones book, either. To the contrary! I made sure that I included more than one example for each of the twenty-one rules. But, I did not pad it with fluff just to make the book look bigger.<\/p>\n

    I am not saying that there is not a place for physical books. Like many of my blog readers, I love physical books. If you prefer How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong> in paperback form, then you can get it. If you prefer it in ebook form, then you can get it. Got it?<\/p>\n

    If you have traveled as much as I have, then you know the pain of lugging heavy books in your carry-on luggage. You also know the pain of having to decide what to take and what to jettison. (Don’t you just love those luggage-weight fees from the airlines?)<\/p>\n

    You need a book “that just works!” — and that is what I have created with How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Get It Now<\/h2>\n

    Get How to Use Hyphens<\/em><\/strong> here:<\/p>\n

    \"Amazon<\/a>   \"All<\/a><\/p>\n

    Review It at Goodreads<\/h2>\n

    \"Add<\/a><\/p>\n

    Reviews at Amazon.com<\/h2>\n