WORD DIVISION

 

WORD DIVISION

Although word divisions are not desirable, they are sometimes necessary. Try to avoid word division when possible. The following rules, along with your word processing software hyphenation feature, will provide guidelines to make word division decision easier.

1. Divide words only between syllables. Use a dictionary to determine the syllables in a word.

            Con-sist                                              tran-script

2. Never divide one-syllable words.

            height                                                 thought

3. Do not separate a one- or two-letter syllable from the beginning or ending of a word.

           a-mount (do not divide)
           seat-ed (do not divide)

4. If the root of a word ends in double letters, divide the word after the double letters and before the ending.

          Will-ing                       fall-ing

          However, if the last letter is doubled when you add the ending, divide the word between the double letters.

          begin-ning                   plan-ning                   omit-ted

5. When a single-letter syllable occurs in a word, divide after the single-letter syllable.

        cata-log                       sepa-rate

When two one-letter syllables occur together within a word, divide between the one-letter syllables.
        anxi-ety                      gradu-ation                    continu-ation

 When the single-letter syllable a, i , or u is followed by the ending syllable ble, bly, cle or cal, divide before the vowel.

       prob-ably                    cler-ical                           depend-able

The rule applies only when the vowel is written as a syllable by itself. IN the following examples, the vowels a and i are not single-letter syllable.

     possi-ble                     dura-ble

6.   Divide hypenated words only at the hyphen.

     self-confidence            son-in-law

7.  Divide compound words between the parts of the word.

      check-book                 there-fore                   business-person

8.    Do not divide contractions.

      couldn't                     doesn't 

9. When there is a choice between two or more places to correctly divide a word, enough of the word to be divided should be included on the first line to suggest what the complete word will be.

     environ-mental          recom-mend

10. Avoid dividing a surname. Try to avoid separating titles, initials or degrees from a surname.

11. Do not divide figures and abbreviations. 

12. Avoid ending more than two consecutive lines with hyphens.

13. Do not divide the first or last lines of a page.

14. Avoid dividing the first or last lines of a paragraph. 

15. If an address must be divided, separate the parts of the address as shown below. 

      468 Mercer - Street (not 468 - Mercer Street )
      Garden City, - New York 11530 (not Garden City, New York - 11530 )

16. If the parts of the date must be divided, it is preferable to separate the date of the month from the year, rather than the month from the day.

       July 1, - 1992 (not July - 1, 1992)