Here’s one confusing pair of words that often has writers doing double takes.
Most language arts textbooks will tell you there are two situations when a hyphen should appear between the suffix re and the second part of the word:
•Re is added so that the word is the equivalent of doing something again: In the old days, writers had to re-type each draft of their manuscript.
•Re would result in a confusion with another word: The company decided to re-create its image. Using recreate, as in recreation, would confuse readers.
So re-elect would be correct.
But hold on! Some stylebooks disagree. The Chicago Manual of Style specifically states that no hyphen appears in reelect. The Associated Press Stylebook says a hyphen should appear (re-elect) but not for the grammar reason given above; AP’s reason is that a hyphen should appear between a suffix and the syllable that follows if the suffix ends with the same letter that the second part begins (so re-enlist and recheck are correct).
The best rule to follow is one of consistency. Simply choose a style and stick with it throughout your manuscript.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.