Hyphens, ellipses, and word counts

Originally published by Wayne.

According to reliable style manuals (I’ve cited four at the bottom of this post), writers should use the en dash, not the hyphen, for number spans.

• With a hyphen (wrong): 343-44
• With an en dash (right): 343–44

I don’t know if you can see the difference, but the en dash, the correct mark, is longer than the hyphen. Although I agree with the rule, I’ve recently learned something that could affect your choice of horizontal mark.

• With a hyphen, Microsoft Word counts this as one word: 343-44
• With an en dash, it counts it as two: 343–44

You get a 50% savings with the hyphen. In a lengthy brief subject to a word count, you could save some words by using the hyphen.

But wait. There’s more.

Do you know the difference between the ellipsis symbol (…) and the Bluebook ellipsis (. . .), which is just three periods with spaces? For example:

• Bluebook: The court . . . concluded
• Ellipsis symbol: The court … concluded

In Typography for Lawyers (cited below), Matthew Butterick recommends the ellipsis symbol. You probably never gave it much thought, but check the words counts:

• With periods and spaces, Word counts this as six words: The court . . . concluded
  
• With the ellipsis symbol, it counts it as four: The court … concluded

You save two words every time you use the symbol instead of periods and spaces.

A former student alerted me to these two strange word-count anomalies and said, “On my last brief to the Seventh Circuit, these two tips cut off close to 200 words–and I ended up 119 words under the limit.”

_____

• Bryan A. Garner, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style § 8.13 (3d ed. 2013).
• Joan Ames Magat, The Lawyer’s Editing Manual 43 (2008)
• Chicago Manual of Style § 6.78 (16th ed. 2010)
• Matthew Butterick, Typography for Lawyers 49, 53-54 (2010)

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