Exercise F

Some of the answers in the answer key to exercise F seem vague to me.

For example, (lines 13, 14, and 15)

"A company that produces fewer than eight or ten titles a year is most likely a two- or-three-person operation,..."

The answer key for 14-15 indicates that a

" A Suspended compound: " two- or three-person operation." Make sure the hyphens and word spaces are indicated correctly."

Other examples included are:

The fourteen- and fifteen-year-old students attended.
Steel-plated or -cased vaults were used.

I feel like the correct answer should be a two-or-three person operation. The explanation doesn't clarify the answer to me. When I look up hyphenated compounds the only explanation that I can find says, "if it is not listed in the dictionary then there is no hyphen." There has to be a better explanation. I find this confusing.

Also, I feel unclear about lines 27- 28,

"books, computer books, gardening books, cook- books, and every stripe of how-to-books."

The answer key for line 28 states that

"Dictionaries show a hyphen in the adjective how-to, but there's no hyphen between the adjective how-to and the noun book.

and then changes "how-to-books" to "how-to book".

I am confused about the placement of the hyphens, and why the the plural form of book becomes singular in the answer key.

Numbers...

... are hard!

I know; this post doesn't pose a question, but I just wanted to convey my frustration regarding the treatment of numbers in a manuscript. This is some hard stuff!

After attempting to tackle Exercise G on page 192, I realized that I had never squared off with a more formidable adversary than those pesky numbers and the seemingly myriad rules that govern their use.

Curse you, numbers, for (naturally) being so complicated to work with!

As Alpha 5 from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers used to say, "Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi!"

Numbers are confusing....

I just did a Google search to find some of the rules for writing numbers and numerals and I was confused. Below are two links to a the ones that I felt most closely matched one another. I didn't know that so much thought could be put into spelling or not spelling numbers. Whoa!

After reading these articles, I still don't think that I know when to spell numbers out for people. Just reading the post by Richie Mae really got me thinking. There are some clear rules there, but there are more rules in the articles I read.

Also, thinking back on this same post, I went and looked at a math book that I still had and couldn't believe that the what Richie said was totally true. Math books are inconsistent in naming their naming of numbers.

Writing Numbers

10 Rules for Writing Numbers and Numerals

That vs which, and numbers!

When do you use 'that' and when do you use 'which'?

When do you spell out numbers? I was reading one of my science textbooks, and they're not very consistent. "Sixty-one of the 64 codons code for the twenty common amino acids."


Lily posted a comment to my previous question:

What about words such as "unfortunately," "absolutely," "surprisingly," etc...? Is it all right to use an adverb at the beginning of the sentence as long as there is a verb it may be modifying later on in the sentence? Do adverbs have to be next to what it modifies?
Unfortunately, he gambled all his money away.
(Correct? to gamble unfortunately?)
Unfortunately, he did not win any money. (Incorrect? Nothing to modify?)