Hyphenation of -oriented when preceded by two words [duplicate]
my question is about hyphenating adjectives that have more than two parts. For this example, I can find four different options:
- working life oriented
- working-life oriented
- working life-oriented
- working-life-oriented
Which one is correct, according to the finest rules of British English grammar? Thanks!
Solution 1:
The Chicago Manual of Style recommends an en-dash between life and oriented. A hyphen leads to too much confusion, and a pair of hyphens gives the impression of something like better-than-average results.
6.80 En-dashes with compound adjectives. The en-dash can be used in the place of a hyphen in a compound adjective when one of its elements consists of an open compound ...
Similar circumstances occur with named objects like:
- Jane Byrne–interchange traffic
- John F. Kennedy–airport parking
- Pre–Rogers and Hammerstein musicals
But,
- Triassic- and Jurassic-era fossils [Two hyphens used because not a single open compound
- Quasi-public–quasi-judicial [Two hyphens and an en-dash in this complicated formation]
Thus,
working life–oriented
My understanding is Chicago is increasingly being accepted overseas.