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Writing the following sentence,

During the negotiation of both regulations, bargaining power was distributed in favour of the status quo oriented states.

I wonder where to put a hyphen, if any? Status-quo oriented, status-quo-oriented, status quo-oriented?

Does a rule exist for such examples or is the placing of a hyphen here left to the taste of the writer?

henning
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    Check out this answer to a related question, as well as the canonical question that's marked as a duplicate of. In brief: the most specific and technical typographic advice is to use the en-dash (not hyphen) to separate "oriented" from "status quo" (which itself will have no joining characters, neither hyphen nor dash): "status quo–oriented". – Dan Bron Jun 24 '15 at 14:22
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    ...though the above is by no means the 'only correct answer'; essentially, it's a recommendation. The overriding necessity is to avoid confusion (brown bear-like animal or brown-bear-like animal). As for the en-dash versus hyphen debate, it becomes senseless when one realises that variation with font used can render disambiguation ridiculously involved. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 24 '15 at 14:29
  • @EdwinAshworth I specifically avoid (and sometimes disparage) fonts without clear distinction between hyphen, en dash, and em dash. It's unfortunate that typographers aren't always aware of the application of their art. – nomad Jun 24 '15 at 15:15
  • @nomad Typography is off-topic on ELU. And what you say is personal opinion. There are even some people who can still use a pen; are we now going to legislate as to whose en-dashes must be considered incorrect? – Edwin Ashworth Jun 24 '15 at 16:29
  • @EdwinAshworth Fortunately, we're talking about typography only as it relates to a grammatical function, so we're 100% on topic here! And lucky, because you're the one who brought up the topic of fonts in the first place. :) – nomad Jun 26 '15 at 13:15
  • You're saying that 'Typography is off-topic' is inherently inadmissible? Not the spirit of the law, but 'Recommendations as to which [imagine I'm not using the word] fonts etc should be used' are off-topic. And 'which punctuation styles amongst various choices presented by different style guides should be used' is similarly primarily opinion-based. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 26 '15 at 13:27
  • @EdwinAshworth Good thing I didn't recommend any fonts. I simply agreed with you—that variation in fonts can render disambiguation difficult—by saying some fonts do and some fonts don't. I've never seen someone argue so vehemently against someone who agreed with him from the beginning—and for breaking a rule that, if it was broken, he broke first and just as much. – nomad Jun 26 '15 at 15:36

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Check out this answer to a related question, as well as the canonical question that's marked as a duplicate of. In brief: the most specific and technical typographic advice is to use the en-dash (not hyphen) to separate "oriented" from "status quo" (which itself will have no joining characters, neither hyphen nor dash): "status quo–oriented". – Dan Bron

...though the above is by no means the 'only correct answer'; essentially, it's a recommendation. The overriding necessity is to avoid confusion (brown bear-like animal or brown-bear-like animal). As for the en-dash versus hyphen debate, it becomes senseless when one realises that variation with font used can render disambiguation ridiculously involved. – Edwin Ashworth

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