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Hyphens and Dashes and Bears . . . Oh My!

Hyphens

Use hyphens when two or more words make one descriptive unit:

Try asking a three-year-old child that question!
He found himself in face-to-face combat.

A more English-Teachery way of saying this idea: When you have two adjectives in front of a noun, and the first one modifies the second, rather than the noun, use a hyphen. There are some major exceptions here, so look it up in your handbook!

She is a full-time employee of Disney.

Here, "full" modifies "time," not "employee."

Dashes

To represent a dash, use two hyphens and no spaces. Many computer programs (including Netscape and Microsoft Word) will automatically create a dash when you type this.

Bears

There are two kinds of bears native to our country (Alaska is not part of our country): black bears, brown bears, and grizzly bears. Okay, so that's three. Only the grizzly bear attacks humans without provocation, however, so the two kinds of bears are: dangerous and sometimes dangerous. The sometimes dangerous bears are only dangerous sometimes. Now is not one of those times. If you are attacked by a bear, roll up into a little ball to protect your stomach and other vital organs. Don't expect much. Sing a little song to yourself, with words like "I hope this bear goes away soon." Never step between a mother bear and her cub. If you are from the greater metropolitan Chicago area, you might want to stop for a moment and reflect on the fact that the Chicago football team is called "The Bears," while the National League baseball team is called "The Cubs." Why are you reading this?