hyphenation - Is a hyphen required or is the proper use of it subjective?

My question is as stated in the title.

In a very famous article, I noticed the author used the word - "nonexperiment". I looked up the word and it is not actually a word, so I believe it should be written as "non-experiment". Am I wrong? Furthermore, my professor used the word binwidth, and it is not a word. Thus, I would write it as bin-width, but only because it is not a word.

I believe grammar and sentence structures are not explicitly well defined. But I do believe there are general definitions, and on top of that, experts in writing have extended the definitions based on their own opinion. Thus, even though I consider myself a beginner in writing, I would rather accept and use the words "nonexperiment" and "binwidth".

My professor considers himself as a terrible writer, but I like his style because it is not difficult for me to understand. Is it possible he used the word - "binwidth" incorrectly?

Answer

At the outset I should warn you that not all style manuals are alike. With that out of the way, here is probably the most relevant excerpt from The Chicago Manual of Style:

When using this guide (a return to the tabular format of earlier editions of this ?>manual), consult the preceding paragraphs in this section (7.77–84)—especially if a >relevant example cannot be found. In general, Chicago prefers a spare hyphenation >style: if no suitable example or analogy can be found either in this section or in the >dictionary, hyphenate only if doing so will aid readability. Each of the four sections >of the following table is arranged alphabetically (by first column). The first section >deals with compounds according to category; the second section, with compounds >according to parts of speech. The third section lists examples for words commonly used >as elements in compounds. The fourth section lists common prefixes, most of which join >to another word to form one unhyphenated word; note especially the hyphenated >exceptions, not all of which agree with Webster’s. (Compounds formed with suffixes—>e.g., nationhood, penniless—are almost always closed.)

The fourth section of the table referred to here gives these guidelines:

The Associated Press Stylebook is another good (and perhaps more user-friendly) resource.