So, in the spirit of national novel writing month, heres my advice. Writers love em dashes as much as hunters love swiss army knives. See more ideas about grammar, grammar and punctuation, grammar tips. An en dash is longer than a dash and shorter than an em dash. If youre writing for a newspaper, magazine, or website that uses associated.
Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing. School is based on the three rsreading, writing, and rithmetic. The hyphen, along with its cousins the en and em dash, may be the most misunderstood punctuation mark in english. An easytounderstand english grammar book with fun grammar lessons for middle grades and up.
Ten grammar rules every writer should know writing forward. Jan 01, 2014 the best punctuation book, period includes all that you need to know about punctuation. Use one before the parenthetical information and one after it. You open your book when the proctor prompts you, flip to that first page, anduhoh. An em dash, or long dash, is used in pairs, to mark off information or ideas that are not essential to an understanding of the rest of the sentence. Shes a lovely girl, butand you may hate me for saying soshe cannot dance for the life of her. Use an em dash to indicate a sharp change in tone or subject within speech. If you find yourself wanting to throw in a little extra information about a noun in a particular sentence and are not sure whether the parentheses or the emdash is the way to go, read the sentence out loud. Dont replace the second emdash as some tend to with a comma or semicolon.
Experienced writers know that these marks are not interchangeable. It is absolutely unnecessary, but another piece that i use regularly. Dashes versus colons grammar girl quick and dirty tips. Think of a colon as part of the sentence that just ambles along. The en dash is used to represent a span or range of numbers, dates, or time. An em dash is longer than an en dash and three times as long as a hyphen. Why do people care so much about a piece of no offence punctuation, asks. The best punctuation book, period by june casagrande. The more experience i gain as a writer, the more im convinced that writing is one of the most difficult skills to master. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing by. Em dashes are often used to set off parenthetical information. Em dashes set apart parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. Like the parentheses, it can be used to make asides.
In informal writing, em dashes may replace commas, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an. Find out whether you need spaces on either side of an emdash. Thousands of childrenlike the girl in this photographhave been left homeless. Most newspapers and all that follow ap style insert a space before and after the em dash. Unlike hyphens and en dashes, em dashes are less formal and generally shouldnt be used too much in one paragraph because of their visual impact. Apr 24, 2009 the difference between a colon and a dash is pretty subtle.
Depending on the context, the em dash can take the place of commas, parentheses, or colons. Grammar girl offers quick and dirty tips on when to use commas. There are two similar but distinct punctuation marks called dashes. Notwithstanding its versatility, the em dash is best limited to two appearances per sentence.
A hyphen has its own special use to be talked about in a later column. Stever robbins, the host of the getitdone guy podcast, has been writing a book. How to use the hyphen, en dash and em dash ndash mdash, n. For example, em dashes are used when a parenthetical remark contains an internal comma or would otherwise sound awkward if enclosed by commas. When should i use an emdash, an endash, and a hyphen. More specifically, time for some act english punctuation, grammar, and usage questions.
Please consult your favorite grammar book or blog for notes on usage. En dashes dashes that are the width of the character n have. Some say to use the en dash instead of the em dash, while others go so far as to advocate using the hyphen, advice that would lead to confusion for readers, as we have noted above. Jan 01, 2008 to the delight of word nerds everywhere, grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing came out yesterday. Arrows to the heart grammar girl quick and dirty tips. If you have grammar topics youd like to see covered, please leave a comment about it. The en dash is slightly wider than the hyphen but narrower than the em dash. Identifying how an emdash is used and actually using one in your own writing are two different things, the latter being trickier. Some of the most overlooked grammar rules and best writing practices. Mar 10, 2018 the use of dashes is inconsistent in lots of writing regardless of how professional the writers are. It can be easy to overlook the english section during your act prep. An emdash is typically used as a standin for a comma or parenthesis to separate out phrasesor even just a wordin a sentence for various reasons e. The dragon grammar book is the perfect grammar study guide to help readers learn the rules of grammar and improve language art skills with ease and enjoyment. Fourth grade teacher, las vegas public school system whether you are a grammarphobe seeking guidance, a parent looking for a tutorial that your kids will enjoy and therefore use or a writer seeking a fun reference manual for frustrating recurring questions, grammar girls quick and.
The em dash is typically used without spaces on either side, and that is the style used in this guide. The chicago manual of style online is the venerable, timetested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. One em is the same length as the fonts height which is typically measured in points. Word breaks which is using a hyphen to break up a word at the end of a line of text like this. It is useful and versatile, and too few writers make use of it. Note how dashes subtly change the tone of the following sentences. After all, if you live in an anglophone country, youve probably had english lessons for.
It can add a spiceor a dash, if you willto a sentence by adding emphasis to certain words and phrases. Using em dashes instead of parentheses puts the focus on the information between the em dashes. Squiggly has two hobbies and, now im going to tell you what they are, colon cooking. A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text not at the bottom.
The em dash is perhaps the most versatile punctuation mark. When using the hyphen, the en dash, or the em dash, mostbut not allstyle books advocate putting space neither before nor after them. In informal writing, em dashes may replace commas, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought. The emdash may also be used when there is an interruption in the thought of the same speaker. A dash interrupts the flow of the sentence and tells the reader to get ready for some important or dramatic statement. The hyphen, em dash and en dash crop up all the time while youre using microsoft word, but most of us dont know why and we use the different dashes inconsistently. Mignon fogarty, better known as grammar girl, suggests a simple twopart rule in formatting vertical lists.
Dashes are used to separate groups of words, not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. If you look at these marks with style in mind, the ellipsis is most similar to the em dash. To show how to wield this handy punctuation mark, ill start by comparing two sentences. You could write the sentence a different way, of course, im heading. Repeat listings by that same author feature a 3em dash rather than the authors name again. If your leadin statement is a complete sentence, use a colon at the end to introduce your list. Its not enough to tell a great story, share an original idea, or create an intriguing poem. The 3em dash which is the width of three ms in the corresponding font most frequently appears in a bibliography when an authors name is cited more than once. The typical computer keyboard lacks a dedicated key for the en dash, though most word processors provide a means for its insertion. Britishcanadian style guides seem wildly inconsistent on the issue of the em and en dash. There used to be a real me, but i had it surgically removed. When i first read this book, my first thought was oh great, another boring punctuation book.
You are the friendthe only friendwho offered to help me. Culture books you might call it the bad boy, or cool girl, of punctuation. Using dashes to credit quotations you can use an em dash to credit a quote to someone. Sep, 2011 a colon announces that something special is about to appear. She is an inductee in the podcasting hall of fame, and the show is a fivetime winner of best education podcast in the. One of my favorite old grammar books, titled punctuate it right, has a wonderful.
Its longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. Dashes, colons, and commas grammar girl quick and dirty tips. I am talking about the em dash, which looks like two hyphens connected into one long line. In this use, em dashes are similar to commas and parentheses, but there are subtle differences. An excellent education reference for classroom and homeschool grammar lessons. Find out when to use dashes and when to use colons with grammar girls tips. Most newspapers, however, set the em dash off with a single space on each side. It is split into two parts, one of them explaining the uses for specific punctuation, and the other explaining punctuation for specific words.
Its an em dash before peter sellers, and an en dash between 1925 and 1980. It is the indispensable reference for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers, informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice. She is an inductee in the podcasting hall of fame, and the show is a fivetime winner of best education podcast in the podcast awards. Hyphens, en dashes, em dashes the chicago manual of style.
Grammar and punctuation the blue book of grammar and. Squiggly has two hobbies and, now im going to tell you what they are. Sep 15, 2016 heres a good strategy to use when trying to decide whether to use emdashes or parentheses in your writing. Use em dashes to set off parenthetical information. Presubmission basic grammar and style primer for childrens. The em dash, em rule, or mutton is longer than an en dash.