Thank you for taking the time to visit the site and comment– I truly appreciate your interest.

I have to admit that I’m thoroughly aware of the distinction in purpose and intent of hyphens and dashes, but have simply never figured out how, as I type into the WordPress interface, to create a proper en- or em-dash. Thus, the use of the hyphen as a substitute. I tend to use hyphens on compound modifiers only when it seems absolutely unclear without them.

I do have the Chicago MoS at my elbow, and use it while writing formally. The blog functions as a completely informal way to communicate with readers, and posts are written quickly and casually without a great deal of editing. However, I’d love to know how you achieved those tidy looking dashes in your comment!

Thanks again for your helpful input!
Janice

In any case, despite slips such as one a few years back by the NYTimes’ Bill Safire, thhe two marks have almost opposite intent. The hyphen joins typographic elements; the dash separates them.

The most commonly accepted view ignores, to begin with, the en dash. So “dash” is commonly considered a reference to the em dash alone. In the old typewrite world, two hyphens were used to indicate an em dash. It’s used much like the comma (and commas are often over-used).

The hyphen role easiest, perhaps, to misunderstand relates to its use in compound modifiers. When the two (or more) elements of a modifier are in an unclear construction, joining them with hyphens can be a great service to the reader. And the reader is, after all, the ultimate target.

I hold the dash-hyphen distriction to be fully as important as the serial comma. Thus I hope you won’t object to [a] my rant on the subject and [b] my quite possibly have misplaced it based on my lack of familiarity with this service. I appreciate your patience. –Ed Nelson

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5611012

It doesn’t cost much to set up there. She has learned a lot about marketing from etsy’s webinars, too.

I’m toying with the idea of writing an ebook for teenagers wanting to start a microbusiness. I got the idea when I attended a Kids in Business workshop that Amanda Bennett, the unit study queen, did at the Midwest HS Convention (in Cincinnati). It was packed with parents and students! Amanda doesn’t have a unit study on kids in business, so she was trying to talk me into writing something!

At this time all I can offer is an article I wrote called Teens and Taxes. It’s on my website here:
http://www.caroltoppcpa.com/TeensinBusiness.html
The webpage also has slides from a workshop I did for teen entrepreneurs. It’s on my To Do List to record that presentation and upload it.

Thanks for the links. All good stuff to help a teenager get started.

Carol Topp, CPA
http://www.CarolToppCPA.com