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Style Guidelines
Adjective Punctuation
Chem 241A
April 6, 2012
Efficient English Style Targets (page 41)
Sentences/paragraph
>7
Average
words/sentence
12 - 15
Mechanical
errors/sentence
0
Prepositions/sentence
Prepositions/verb
Verbs
Large standard
deviation
1.5
Small standard
deviation
< 0.5
Small standard
deviation
85% active voice
Sentence structure/
paragraph
3-4
Sentence type/
paragraph
3-4
Readability Scores
Flesh Reading Ease
Flesh Readability Ease
Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level Score
Automatically calculated by MS Word
Quick, useful tools.
Due Monday April 9
200-word* paragraph describing your
ideal lab
Use action verbs in the active voice
Double space
Print readability statistics
* maximum length (fewer words acceptable)
Adjective Punctuation (page 37)
Commas
Commas separate coordinate adjectives
of equal rank.
Coordinate adjectives can be separated
with the word ‘and’ or reversed in order
without changing meaning.
Roberto is a warm, gentle, affectionate father
Adjective Punctuation
Hyphens
Hyphens join compound adjectives so
that the adjective has a new meaning.
dipole-dipole interactions
home-grown tomatoes
warm-winter coat
foil-wrapped container
thirty-first floor
Cumulative adjectives without
a comma
A rich chocolate layer cake
Layer cake
And it is chocolate
And it is rich
Can’t say
A layer chocolate rich cake
Order of Cumulative
Adjectives
Coordinate adjectives
separated by a comma
He is a second-generation, Spanish-speaking
American.
(The parents of the person described were born in the
United States. He knows Spanish. No information is
given about his parents' language skills or his
nationality.)
or
He is a Spanish-speaking, second-generation
American.
Cumulative adjectives without
a comma
He is a second-generation Spanish-speaking
American.
(The person described is a second-generation
American; both he and his parents speak
Spanish.)
not the same as
He is a Spanish-speaking second-generation
American.
(adding commas give clarity)
Importance of adjective
punctuation
We have a live virus infected mouse.
What is living? The virus or the mouse?
We have a live, virus-infected mouse.
We have a live-virus infected mouse.
Industrial example
The hot caustic corroded reactor failed.
What temperature is the reactor and what
caused the corrosion?
The hot, caustic-corroded reactor failed.
The hot-caustic, corroded reactor failed.
=
The corroded, hot-caustic reactor failed
Compound Adjectives
forty-five grams
one-half ton
English-American agreement
second-generation process
three-year-old pump
100-mL flask
Hyphen Use
Do not use hyphens with adverbs that end in -ly
or
when the compound adjective follows the
noun.
This is first-rate science
His science is first rate.
Always use hyphens when the dictionary does;
for example, the adjective "up-to-date" always
has hyphens.
Hyphen Use
He is a highly regarded scientist.
We used a finely polished die.
We sailed the 20-foot boat.
The boat we used was 20 feet.
We practice up-to-date research methods.
Our research methods are
up-to-date.
Well-made reactor
Hyphen Misuse
Menu Item
Baby-stuffed flounder
(I did not order it!!!!)
Assignments due 4/9
(1) Complete the adjective punctuation exercises on
pages 44 and 45. Make a copy to hand in. Bring
original and manual to class
(2) Paragraph on your ideal lab