Yeah, I think it sounds horrible, but the
dean of my college wrote it for a grant application. I’m looking it over for
major grammatical problems, but I’m not sure how much he is really going to let
me change.
Janet
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 5:39 PM
To:
Subject: Re: hyphens
Janet,
I would be tempted to avoid the piling
up of adjective modification and write more simply: "research related to water
quality." The formation of a compound
like "water quality" ought to be enough, but then to make it
adjectival (was complement to the verb "relate") seems to leave
nowhere to go. One compound hyphenated compounding suffix that seems to
be accepted in formal writing is "-like." When it is attached
to a hyphenated compound the hyphen is known to turn into an en-dash, "water-quality–like
research." That neat device is not
available here, but maybe it is pressure from such a compound that pushes us to
go for it.
Bruce
From: Assembly
for the Teaching of English Grammar [
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 4:26 PM
To:
Subject: hyphens
Hello
In the following phrase, “water quality
related research,” would you hyphenate any of these words? I’m tempted to
do this: “water-quality-related research.”
What do you think?
Janet
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