Identity Guidelines

Editorial Style Guide

H

health care
Two words in all instances (per AP).

He’s pushing for health care reform.

health care
Two words in all instances (per AP).

He’s pushing for health care reform.

Hill Country

Hispanic

hyphens
To check if a particular word is hyphenated, refer to Webster’s 11th Edition. Also, Chicago’s 15th edition has a guide for hyphenation of compounds, combining forms and prefixes under section 7.90.

A compound modifier is usually hyphenated when it comes before the noun but not after it:

She directs their computer-assisted mail services. Almost all of our services are computer assisted.

Those are graduate-level courses. That course is graduate level.

He is a much-appreciated worker. His diligence is much appreciated.

EXCEPT when the first modifier ends in -ly; in this case, do not hyphenate it:

The highly organized administrative assistant was deeply respected.
NOT The strangely-dressed man appeared lost.

Modifying phrases containing numbers (cardinal or ordinal) tend to be hyphenated before but not after the noun:

a three-hour tour
a 150,000-square-foot building
a 5-year-old child

San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the U.S. UTSA is the second-largest institution in the UT System.

BUT The tour was more than three hours.
The child is 5 years old.

However, when the modifying phrase involves money symbols or percentages, neither takes hyphens in any position:

9 percent increase in costs
$2.5 million gift

Use a suspended hyphen when a base word, such as year, UTSA and campus in the examples below, or a suffix or prefix such as self, is doing double duty:

second- and third-year law students
UTSA-owned and -operated computer store
on- or off-campus housing information

Use this construction even when complete words, standing alone, would be closed up:

macro- and microeconomics

EXCEPT when the first expression is ordinarily open:

applied linguistics and sociolinguistics

Many words beginning with common prefixes are closed up.

extracurricular, interlibrary, midyear, minicomputer, multicultural, nondegree, postdoctoral, semicolon, socioeconomic

Generally, a hyphen is only used if the prefix ends in a vowel and the word that follows begins with the same vowel.

pre-enrollment, re-evaluate

There are two types of EXCEPTIONS:

When closing up a word would make it confusing, ambiguous or difficult to read:

co-op vs. coop
anti-intellectual vs. antiintellectual

When the second element of the word starts with a capital letter or precedes a hyphenated phrase:

pre-Columbian
non-degree-granting program
(BUT nondegree)
mid-May

The prefix co- is hyphenated in words that indicate occupation or status. Otherwise, it is usually closed up:

co-author, co-host
cocurricular, coeducation

Hyphenate both the noun forms and the adjectival forms of grade:

first-grader, 10th-grader, a fourth-grade pupil
BUT He is in the first grade.

Do not use a hyphen to designate dual heritage in either the adjectival or noun form (an exception to AP style):

Mexican American students
African American