Hyphens to divide words at line endings

In most texts for school or work, your word processing program typically is not set to hyphenate words at the ends of lines. But sometimes you will want to produce a special sort of text that demands hyphenation—a newletter, a brochure, or a table with narrow columns. Without hyphenation, the columns of text would not look right. When you must hyphenate, follow these rules.

Divide words between syllables; never divide a one-syllable word.

Never divide a word so that a single letter stands alone at the end of a line or fewer than three letters begin a line.

When dividing a compound word at the end of a line, either make the break between the words that form the compound or put the whole word on the next line.

Exercise: The hyphen