How Do You Know When To Use Dashes

You have to use an em dash when crediting.

How do you know when to use dashes. Dashes like commas semicolons colons ellipses and parentheses indicate added emphasis an interruption or an abrupt change of thought. The reason for using an en dash with such compounds is to send a subtle signal to the reader that the prefix belongs to the entire compound not just the first word of it. The first thing to know when talking about dashes is that they are almost never required by the laws of grammar and punctuation. Dashes are used to separate groups of words not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. Note how dashes subtly change the tone of the following sentences.

Experienced writers know that these marks are not interchangeable. The vegetarian gasped in horror when he saw lining the wall of the cabin a collection of animal heads moose deer bears squirrels all dead. Em dashes are the width of you guessed it a capital m. There used to be a real me but i had it surgically removed peter sellers 1925 1980 note. You use them to surround something that seems a bit out of place in the sentence an aside a clarification or a commentary.

Here are some different situations when you can use an em dash. Parentheses are the quiet whisper of an aside commas are the conversational voice of a friend walking by your desk and dashes are the yowl of a pirate dashing into a fray. Em en and the double hyphen. Let s start with those quiet parentheses. Use a longer em dash to join independent clauses with words like and but as or and for.

The most common types of dashes are the en dash and the em dash. To start with just the first item on that list we can. Overusing dashes can break up the flow of your writing making it choppy or even difficult to follow so don t overdo it. A good way to remember the difference between these two dashes is to visualize the en dash as the length of the letter n and the em dash as the length of the letter m. Using dashes to credit quotations you can use an em dash to credit a quote to someone.

Do not overuse dashes or use them in place of other punctuation. To properly use a dash in an english sentence start by identifying which dash you should use. It s also important to distinguish between dashes and hyphens. A dash can be used to add emphasis at the beginning middle or end of a. It s longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause.