Question sent in by e-mail by Sandra P. (March 6, 2011):
Dear Sir,
I am a senior student and I have been very interested in your column since I first got to read it last year. I would like to ask for an explanation regarding something that I’m confused with. Last month, I wrote an article regarding our JS. Since everybody has been writing simply “JS,” and my friends do not even seem to know what they stand for, I decided to write “Junior-Senior Prom” instead. However, it was corrected by our editor to “Juniors-Seniors.” I think that since it already expresses a relationship among the group, the words in the hyphenated term should take the singular form instead of the plural. Please clear my mind on this. Thank you.
My reply to Sandra P.:
As far back as I can remember, the generally accepted style and spelling for the term in question is “Junior-Senior Prom.” That “Junior” and “Senior” are in the singular form in the hyphenated term is all a matter of convention, though, and not because the hyphenated term “Junior-Senior” is a distinctly new term that expresses a particular relationship.
I personally find it awkward saying “Juniors-Seniors Prom” aloud, which is also why I wouldn’t be caught writing the term that way. But then it’s definitely easier on the tongue to say “Juniors-Seniors,” minus the word “Prom.” I think this is why your editor saw fit to change your “Junior-Senior Prom” to “Juniors-Seniors” for short, which is pleasantly informal and, I might add, more idiomatic than “Junior-Senior Prom.” (In contrast, to say “Junior-Senior”—with both words in the singular form—doesn’t feel and sound right to me.) I therefore can appreciate why your editor decided to exercise the editorial prerogative in favor of “Juniors-Seniors.” This is not to say, though, that “Junior-Senior Prom” is grammatically inferior to “Juniors-Seniors.” The choice between the two is simply a matter of style.
