Writing - End-of-line hyphenation - how should it be used?

End-of-line hyphenation is the process of breaking words between lines to create more consistency across a text block. (source) A long word is broken across a line-break by means of a hyphen. It helps justify a text, along letter spacing and kerning. A word processors can do this automatically, if one so desires.

In Russian and French printed literature, hyphenation is very common. In Russian in particular, it is not uncommon to see even a four-letter word broken in twain. In English, I have never seen hyphenation in literary texts at all. I have sometimes seen it in academic articles, breaking uncommonly long words like 'deoxyribonucleic'.

Are there commonly used standards for end-of-line hyphenation in English? Any reasons for me to use or not to use hyphenation in my manuscript? Why is it that hyphenation is very rarely used in English literary texts?

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End-of-line hyphenation - how should it be used?

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