Follow up, Follow-up, or Followup?

This week’s writing tip is a greatest hit from 2017. It’s a summary of Grammarly’s excellent review of the often-confusing “follow up.” There’s a quiz at the end to test your new knowledge!

Follow up is a verb.
Follow-up is a noun or adjective.
Followup is wrong.

If you are using “follow up” as a verb, there is a space between “follow” and “up.” If you are using it as a noun or an adjective, choose the universally accepted “follow-up.”

Verb

Your doctor and the physical therapist will follow up after the surgery to see how you are recovering.
Please follow up with Assan no later than Thursday.
We need two staff members to follow up on getting volunteers for the event.

Noun

After having the asbestos removed, the company had a follow-up with the inspector.
Dr. Beltrand told the reporter that the second article was an outstanding follow-up to the first.
“Before we go,” Malcolm said, “quick follow-up: can we get more Plain Language training in 2018?”

Adjective

If everything goes well, you could be called for a follow-up interview.
We heard nothing about our complaint, so we sent a follow-up letter.
Make a follow-up appointment so we can monitor the effects of your new medication.

Quick Tips

Using it as a verb? Put a space between the two words, and no hyphen: “follow up.”
Using it as a noun or adjective? Put a hyphen between the two words: “follow up.”
Writing it as “followup”? Don’t.

Test Yourself!

After each webinar, we send out a __________ survey to get feedback.
Please schedule the __________ for this Wednesday between noon and 3:00.
In three weeks, Duong will __________ to make sure food safety issues are being addressed.
The team plans to __________ with all participants after two months.
Community members thanked us and requested a __________ in the fall.
One year later, Ricardo conducted a __________ study.

Answers

follow-up
follow-up
follow up
follow up
follow-up
follow-up

Sources

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