by Jennie Ruby
Have you ever read a document and seen the same words sometimes separate and sometimes combined? Or even sometimes with a hyphen? Some examples are the expressions cut off, cut out, clean up, follow up, and follow through. You might see these handled different ways, like this:
- They decided to cut off his funding.
- Did you apply by the cutoff date?
- When is the cutoff?
How can all of these be correct? The answer is in the dictionary–and in the way the word is used in the sentence. In the first example, cut off is a verb. Webster's lists cut off as two words when it is used as a verb. In the second example, cutoff is an adjective being used to describe date, and in the third, cutoff is being used as a noun. Webster's lists cutoff as the correct spelling when it is used as a noun or adjective.
Similar distinctions are true for clean up, follow up, and cut out, but be careful–they don't all follow the same pattern.
For example:
- During a general cleanup [noun], you must clean up [verb] the mess.
- You can cut up [verb] a fish, but when you are done you have a cut-up [adjective] fish.
- However, nobody likes a cutup [noun].
- You can follow up [verb] a class by doing some reading, but during the follow-up [noun] don't forget to make some follow-up [adjective] notes.
- If you follow through [verb] on your commitments, you will be commended for having good follow-through [noun].
These examples are from Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, but style guides may have different rules. If the adjective form is not in the dictionary, it should be hyphenated. Your best bet is to always look these up, in other words, to do a lookup, or make yourself a look-up list.
About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.
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