It drives me up a wall when people use "most well" instead of "best." However, it's such a common habit, I'm wondering if I'm missing something.
Is it grammatically correct to say "This is the most well-represented mammal order" rather than "This is the best represented mammal order"? Another example is "This is the most well known carnivore" vs "This is the best known carnivore."
Best Answer
The well-represented wording is clearer and feels much more correct to me. Placement of the word "best" in the second example invokes the "pretty little girls school" problem, in that it could be interpreted multiple ways.
"This is the best represented mammal order". Oh, it's the "best" mammal order that is actually represented? Or it's the best-represented? The reader/listener's mind catches for a moment to discern the correct meaning for the content. Adding a hyphen would largely avoid this problem in the written word. However, I believe the "most well-represented" form comes across more clearly in the spoken word, and can be spoken in a way that the written hyphen is conveyed to the listener.