What are some common examples of the misuse of a single word by breaking it into two words?
e.g. rest room, under way.

What about in the other direction?
What about omitting hyphens between words which clearly require them, given the context of the sentence?

Easy one for the other direction. I've noticed lately a lot of people saying "awhile" when they mean "a while". Tilt inducing.

Should this be tilt-inducing? (Serious question.)

How do you know which one they said?

I would assume if the usage was an adverb it was the former, and if the usage was a noun it was the latter. This seems like it can only be a mistake when writing.

I was taking notes the other day and found myself writing "infodump" and "backstory" rather than keeping them as two separate words. It seems reasonable to me as the two words are so frequently used together.

On the other hand, I'll hyphenate more frequently than most people, particularly when it's something like "well-worn" or "time-honored." For some reason it makes more sense to me to hyphenate these and condense the others, but I have no idea what the rule is here. I feel like descriptors deserve hyphens and nouns deserve to be combined into a new word for whatever reason. I'm probably wrong, but it makes sense to me so that's how I do it.

Sorry, I meant in writing.

Hyphens for compound adjectives are required if you wouldn't substitute and for the hyphen and have the same meaning. If the hyphen would be at the end of the sentence, it is not required.

Examples?

Ruby, red shoes.
Ruby and red shoes.
Ruby-red shoes.

Beginning with its sixth paragraph, the phrasing in this essay on Mo Yan's Frog becomes remarkably sloppy. Assorted clunkers:

I'm reminded of rules twelve and thirteen in Mark Twain's essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses".

Good post.

"If the hyphen were at the end of the sentence...."

This is a hilarious line in an otherwise competently written review. I'm not one to demand strict compatibility with reality in creative phrasing; unlike some, for instance, I wouldn't consider the Karen Russell sentence "The thunder has gentled to a soft nicker" flawed on the basis that thunder doesn't 'gentle'. But clashing images, as with Darling's miraculously polysensory eyes, should be avoided.

I corrected a sentence today. Did I do it right?

Old:

You must blah blah, irregardless of whether or not the widget is used.

New:

You must blah blah, irrespective of whether the widget is used.

Why not just regardless?

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm asking. Why not just "whether or not the widget is used"?

To me your Russell example is totally fine because of the implicit horse image/metaphor. Seems obvious that's what she was going for, right?

Among many other things.

Karen Russell is a fantastic stylist. "The Barn at The End of Our Term" is worth a read.

"Whether or not" is OK for informal speech but a bit clumsy for formal language.

"Irrespective" and "regardless" are very similar but subtly different. For instance:

"I'm going to the pub tonight regardless of what my wife thinks about it".

Fine, but:

"I'm going to the pub tonight irrespective of what my wife thinks about it".

Weird. Why is that?

"Regardless" carries the subtle implication that the object could have been relevant, but has been judged not to be. "Irrespective" carries the connotation of rejecting the relevance of the object to the question. That's why it sounds weird above, because the connotation is "my wife's thoughts really have no bearing on this decision".

Try this one:

"Initech treats all job applicants equally, regardless of gender or race"
"Initech treats all job applicants equally, irrespective of gender or race"

Both are fine, but if you're like me, you think the second one sounds better. The first one says "Initech will hire people of any gender or race". But the second one implies "Initech rejects the notion that gender or race could possibly have any bearing on its hiring decisions".

Isn't the AP supposed to be a reputable source?

"Last year, young Iranian men and unveiled women who shot a video of themselves dancing together to Pharrell Williams' "Happy" were arrested for allegedly breeching Islamic norms."

http://hosted2.ap.org/txdam/633c954d...e0350f0c6471c3

Clearly, dancing in your skivvies is frowned upon by the prophet Muhammad.

peace be upon Him

Question on this statement to the grammar nits:

"There are 9 balls and one is heavier than the rest."

Does this imply the other 8 weigh the same amount?

No.