oh, grammar...

I have to have this performance-based assessment task thing for tomorrow and it basically done. I was just working on the "scoring tool" and got a bit confused (I don't know if non-education types are going to know what that means since none of our teachers ever gave us scoring tools, just arbitrary grades). Anyway, a scoring tool defines what you need to do to get the highest grade and shows how you will be marked down if you don't meet the exemplary mark. So I was working on the scoring tool, and realized I am not really sure if I'm supposed to say "well-written" or "well written." I tried to see what Word's grammar check had to say about it and typed "well-written." Not incorrect. I typed "dog-cat." Not incorrect. I linked a curse word with "sack." Not incorrect. So I looked up hyphenated words on the Purdue University site, and it turns out no one ever told me why words would be hyphenated anyway. This is semi-troubling. I blame high school English teachers.

The following are the "generally agreed upon uses of the hyphen" though hyphen use is "obviously in a state of flux."

1. Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun:

a one-way street
chocolate-covered peanuts
well-known author

However, when compound modifiers come after a noun, they are not hyphenated:

The peanuts were chocolate covered.
The author was well known.

2. Use a hyphen with compound numbers:

forty-six
sixty-three
Our much-loved teacher was sixty-three years old.

3. Use a hyphen to avoid confusion or an awkward combination of letters:

re-sign a petition (vs. resign from a job)
semi-independent (but semiconscious)
shell-like (but childlike)

4. Use a hyphen with the prefixes ex- (meaning former), self-, all-; with the suffix -elect; between a prefix and a capitalized word; and with figures or letters:

ex-husband
self-assured
mid-September
all-inclusive
mayor-elect
anti-American
T-shirt
pre-Civil War
mid-1980s

5. Use a hyphen to divide words at the end of a line if necessary, and make the break only between syllables:
(examples were here too, but they were boring ad especially long)

(from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_hyphen.html)