“Well written” or “Well-written”? Learn If “Well written” Is Hyphenated

Well written or well-written is the question we’ll cover today. Hyphenation rules are easy to understand, and hyphenated words are all over the place in English. The quicker you can understand the rules, the better an understanding you’ll have overall! So, is well written hyphenated?

Well Written Or Well-Written – Hyphenated Or Not?

When we discuss the well written hyphen rule, it’s important to know whether there’s a noun or object present in a clause to modify. We use “well-written” when we’re modifying a noun or object directly after the word. We use “well written” without a hyphen when there isn’t a noun or object in the sentence. It becomes its own phrase noun at the end of a clause if this is the case.

Examples Of When To Use “Well Written”

It’s all well and good as telling you how the hyphenation rules work, but it’s not going to help much until we can put them into practice. So, let’s have a quick look through some examples of how to use well written vs well-written. We’ll start with the unhyphenated version. As we said above, we use this version when we’re not modifying a noun or object directly after the word.

  • This article is well written.
  • My resumé is well written.
  • That email was really well written.
  • My English teacher told me my homework was well written.
  • I only like books that are well written.

Examples Of When To Use “Well-Written”

Now we’ll check out the hyphenated version. We use “well-written” when we’re modifying a noun or object in the sentence. This will become more obvious when we get through a few examples, and you’ll see what we mean about the objects present.

  • This is a well-written book.
  • My boss said I have a well-written CV.
  • I’m reading a well-written novel.
  • That’s a well-written journal.
  • We found a well-written manuscript.

Is Well Written Hyphenated AP Style?

Following on from above, we can use the AP stylebook guidelines to help us figure out when to use well-written or well written. With the AP stylebook, we learn that hyphens are used to connect two or more closely linked words together. This connection helps the reader to understand more about what they’re seeing. We keep words unhyphenated when they’re not closely linked and don’t need to modify a noun or object.

Should I Capitalize “Written” In The Word “Well-Written”?

If hyphenation rules have got you scratching your head, just wait until we add title capitalization rules on top. Learning how to capitalize your title is a difficult thing in itself, but it all comes down to personal preference. There are three main styles to choose from, and each style capitalizes hyphenated words slightly differently from the last.

The first style capitalizes the first word and only proper nouns after that. It’s the most outdated form of capitalization, but it leaves both words in “well-written” lower case. The second style is capitalizing every word in a title except for shorter words like prepositions, conjunctions, and articles. In this case, “well” is capitalized as it contains the first letter, but “written” is not, as it counts as the same word.

The final style is to capitalize every word in the title no matter what. This means that both words in “well-written” are capitalized, even though they’re recognized as one word.

Alternatives To “Well Written”

If you’re still not quite grasping the well written hyphen rule, don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with some alternatives that might help you. You can use these in place of saying or writing “well-written” so you can avoid the hyphen rule altogether. They have the same meaning; they just don’t need a hyphen.

  • absorbing
  • eloquent
  • enjoyable
  • gripping
  • fascinating

Quiz – Well Written Or Well-Written?

Let’s finish with a quiz to see what you’ve learned about the hyphenation rules associated with “well-written.” We’ll include the answers at the end for you to compare against and see how you do.

  1. These articles are incredibly (A. well written / B. well-written).
  2. They say I’m a (A. well written / B. well-written) author.
  3. You send (A. well written / B. well-written) emails.
  4. My boss says he’s (A. well written / B. well-written).
  5. That’s a (A. well written / B. well-written) sign.

Quiz Answers

  1. A
  2. B
  3. B
  4. A
  5. B