All readers (and writers) are interested to some degree in the nuts and bolts of language. Sure, when we read, there are larger things we're looking for-a controlled focus, cohesive organization, an engaging style. But for each of us, there are certain issues of diction, syntax, grammar, punctuation, and usage that snag our attention, like thorns snatching and unraveling a sweater.

One of those pet peeves for me is hyphens. Or rather, the lack of them.

Why the hyphen? After all, it's such an innocuous-looking thing. A tiny half-line, barely visible on the page, joining words together like the cars of little toy trains. There are a thousand other more obvious issues I could have with writing. But for me, a missing hyphen is like a hole in the universe, a white void, a yawning nothingness, an empty space crying out in need.

Okay, maybe it's not that bad. But generally, when reading college-level writing, one is far more likely to find a hyphen omitted than added. What's up with this?

A hyphen joins words into a compound form. Essentially, a single construct or idea is formed through a linkage that melds previously individual terms. One common use for hyphens is to create a compound modifier of a noun. For instance, "a blue-green sky" doesn't mean a sky that is half-green and half-blue, or striped or mottled, but a sky of one consistent color…a "new" color that emerges from the combination of those two adjectives (maybe "turquoise" works just as well, but never mind).

If a writer omits the hyphen in blue-green, chances are we can figure out that it doesn't mean the sky is divided into blue and green sections. But in other situations, legitimate confusion can easily arise. Omitting hyphens in this case implies that the two adjectives are functioning separately on the noun that follows, and the result can be confusing, misleading…or embarrassing.

Take the hyphenated descriptor "easy-going," for example. With the hyphen, it means mellow, relaxed, possessing a type-B personality. But without the hyphen we might end up with a sentence like "Sara is an easy going woman." Now, maybe we can deduce that Sara is mellow from this statement, but what it actually seems to be saying is that she is promiscuous and on-the-run. Big difference. Run the same test through the sentence "Dave is a hard-working guy" and you get similar bawdy results.

This no-hyphen confusion occurs more than you might think. I see it in almost every student essay I read. Check out these other examples:

1. Early-bird dinner: with the hyphen, you're just eating dinner early at a restaurant. Without the hyphen, you're eating early, and you're eating chicken.
2. Last-minute decision: with the hyphen, it's a decision made immediately before some deadline. Take out the hyphen, and you have a final, very small decision.
3. Old-fashioned: hyphenated, and you've got a style from a previous era. Non-hyphenated, and you've just got something ancient that's been shaped.
4. Dirty-blonde hair: with the hyphen, it's an attractive color. Without, and it just needs to be washed.
5. Long-winded speaker: with the hyphen, and it means someone who is pompously overindulgent in speech. With no hyphen, the person is just out of breath and…well, long.
6. English-speaking diplomat: with, and it describes a diplomat who can speak English; without, and it describes a Brit who can talk.
7. Fast-track career: hyphenated, and it's a job track with plenty of growth and income potential; without the hyphen, and you're running the 100 meters for a living…
8. High-powered attorney: with, and you've got Johnnie Cochran; without, and your lawyer is a stoner with a battery pack.
9. Thirty-story building: with, and you've got a skyscraper; without, and you've got a building full of anecdotes, tales, and narratives…

In the grand scheme of writing, maybe these ambiguities aren't enormous issues. But then again, writing is the making of meaning, and meaning starts with the building blocks of word choice. A hyphen then isn't just another pointless burden of punctuation that students have to be worried about-it's a tool for constructing and clarifying and creating sense. A hyphen connects, creating something larger than the sum of the parts; suddenly, two unrelated words have evolved into something higher.

And evolution-in writing or anything else-is a good thing.