IU Editorial Style Guide, Letter H
Hispanic
Capitalize this term. It is considered to be English and is therefore not italicized as a foreign word.
This term refers to people who come from (or whose ancestors come from) Spanish-speaking countries. The term is not necessarily interchangeable with Latina/Latino.
See also Latina, Latino, Latine, Latinx.
Many modifier-noun pairs such as high school are unhyphenated when used to modify another noun, especially if the pair is a familiar one.
high school students, not high-school students
overseas study opportunities, not overseas-study opportunities
dual degree programs, not dual-degree programs
general education requirement, not general-education requirement
This is true even when the first word in the pair is also a noun (such as the word grade in the expression grade point).
grade point average, not grade-point average
If the pair is very familiar, often it is closed up.
lowercase letters, not lower case letters or lower-case letters
On the other hand, the hyphen should still be inserted when it’s needed to prevent confusion.
all-grade education, a heavy-ion physicist
A noun-modifier pair such as computer assisted is usually hyphenated when it comes before the noun, but not after it.
She directs the computer-assisted reference services.
but: Almost all of our services are computer assisted.
This is also generally true for modifying phrases containing prepositions.
She lives in off-campus housing.
but: Her home is off campus.
The same rule applies to terms ending in -time or -level.
He is a part-time web designer.
but: He works here part time.Those are graduate-level courses.
but: All of those courses are graduate level.
It’s also true for modifying pairs involving two modifiers.
He is a much-appreciated worker.
but: His diligence is much appreciated.
Do not hyphenate, however, when the first modifier ends in -ly. In this case, leave a space after the -ly word, wherever it occurs.
The highly organized administrative assistant was deeply respected.
Similarly, modifying phrases containing units of measure tend to be hyphenated before but not after the noun.
a three-hour tour, a 150,000-square-foot building, a five-year-old child (but: Sophie is five years old), a mid-twelfth-century relic
Exceptions to this rule occur when the modifying phrase involves money symbols, percentages, or credit hours, none of which have hyphens in any position.
a 9 percent increase in costs, a $2.5 million gift, a 4 credit hour course
The prefix co- is hyphenated in words referring to someone’s occupation or status (e.g., co-author, co-host) in both noun and verb forms. Otherwise, it is usually closed up (e.g., cocurricular, corequisite).
Use a “suspended” hyphen when a base word such as year in the example below, or a suffix or prefix such as self, is doing double duty.
second- and third-year law students, self-initiated and -implemented projects
Use this construction even when the complete words, standing alone, would be closed up.
macro- and microeconomics
Do not “take a shortcut” when the first expression is ordinarily open.
applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, not applied and sociolinguistics
The suffix -wide is hyphenated only after a lengthy base word.
university-wide
but: campuswide, statewide
Many words beginning with common prefixes are closed up. Hyphens are not used in such familiar expressions as these:
extracurricular, interlibrary, midyear, minicomputer, multicultural, nondegree, postdoctoral, preenrollment, reevaluate, semicolon, socioeconomic
There are three types of exceptions, though:
Hyphenate if closing up the word would make it confusing, ambiguous, or difficult to read.
co-op (versus coop), anti-intellectual (versus antiintellectual)
Hyphenate if the second element in the word begins with a capital letter.
anti-American
Hyphenate if the second element in a word that would usually not be hyphenated (e.g., nondegree) is part of a hyphenated phrase.
non-degree-granting program
For guidance on hyphenating specific words, see individual entries in the preferred spelling/capitalization word list in this style guide or see Webster’s Eleventh. Also, The Chicago Manual of Style has a very useful compounds section at the end of its seventh chapter.
See also dashes.