Identity Guidelines

Editorial Style Guide

H

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