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Sometimes, words at the ends of lines cannot be squeezed into the space of that line and that line alone. One option is to justify the text. However, this is not the only option. Indeed, sometimes you are explicitly told not to justify anything at all. The other option is to use Word Splits. Word splits continue the word on the next line with a hyphen (e.g. Mir-ror) Of course, there are some rules as to the location of word-splitting hyphens. I will offer some examples of poorly done word splitting: teac-her (teacher; the split between the letters ''ch'' may misguide readers-aloud to pronounce it ''teek-her''.) pain-staking (are you staking your pain?) wash-ed (words of one syllable cannot be split in case the reader-aloud is misled to pronounce it ''washèd''.) And there are many others. The problem is that readers-aloud may be misled by such splits as ''teac-her'' and readers, both aloud and silent, may find difficulty in interpreting such words as ''pain-staking''. Rules include: 1. Do not split between two letters that form a sound. 2. Do not split words of one syllable. 3. Word-splits like ''fast-idious'' are to be avoided at all costs because they are confusing (what does ''fast'' have to do with anything we've been talking about?) 4. Do not split personal names. 5. Try to split words between their two main elements (''psycho-logy''). 6. As we can see from the ''pain-staking'' example above, word splits can confuse the reader by altering the meaning of two separate elements via the shifting of a letter. In conclusion: word splits need to be placed where they do not confuse the reader. |
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