How Do You Know When To Use Dashes

Experienced writers know that these marks are not interchangeable.

How do you know when to use dashes. To properly use a dash in an english sentence start by identifying which dash you should use. Dashes like commas semicolons colons ellipses and parentheses indicate added emphasis an interruption or an abrupt change of thought. Most often they re used in pairs to emphasize an element or elements within a sentence. Overusing dashes can break up the flow of your writing making it choppy or even difficult to follow so don t overdo it. Let s start with those quiet parentheses.

Using dashes to credit quotations you can use an em dash to credit a quote to someone. It s an em dash before peter sellers and an en dash between 1925 and 1980 note. It s longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. The most common types of dashes are the en dash and the em dash. Place em dashes around non essential information or a list in the middle of a sentence like you would with commas.

Use a dash to prepare for a list a restatement an amplification or a dramatic shift in tone or thought. 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. A dash can be used to add emphasis at the beginning middle or end of a. Note how dashes subtly change the tone of the following sentences.

To start with just the first item on that list we can. Em en and the double hyphen. 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. Dashes are often used to signal an abrupt change in a sentence indicating that the reader should pay close attention to what comes next. Dashes are punctuation marks used to set off non essential information to loosely connect two thoughts or to mark a break in the sentence.

The first thing to know when talking about dashes is that they are almost never required by the laws of grammar and punctuation. 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. 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. Do not overuse dashes or use them in place of other punctuation. Use a longer em dash to join independent clauses with words like and but as or and for.