How To Use Dashes In Writing

The name em indicates that the dash is roughly the size of the letter m.

How to use dashes in writing. The material inside the dashes relates to the information in the rest of the sentence but it acts as an interruption to the main point that you re making. Rather than placing parentheses around a phrase within a statement writers can opt to surround the phrase with an em dash on either end. Use a dash to show a pause or break in meaning in the middle of a sentence. When the dash is used in this way it creates a compound adjective. Most commonly a dash connects an independent clause with another with a related thought plus a conjunction like or but yet as for and after the second dash.

Use an em dash to join independent clauses. An em dash is used to indicate a break in a sentence or question. The words between a pair of dashes may or may not form a complete sentence. Dashes are usually considered to be informal. The two most common dashes are the em dash and the en dash.

The sure fire way of creating an em dash is to use alt and 0151 on the numeric keypad. My brothers richard and john are visiting hanoi. Similarly limit the frequency of dash use in your writing. Think of dashes as the opposite of parentheses. With that background information in mind let s take a look at some ways to put dashes to work in your writing.

On a mac hold down the option key then press the minus key. Use an en dash when you need to connect terms that are already hyphenated or when you are using a two word phrase as a modifier. Em dashes so called because they are at least historically the width of the character m are used for emphasis or interruption. Take it out and the sentence makes sense. The dash works somewhat like parentheses or commas but it is used where a stronger punctuation is needed.

To set off material for emphasis. They can be used on their own or in pairs to offset a word or phrase. The big daddy of dashes the em dash is generally twice as long again as the en dash. It is used in the same manner as a parenthetical expression. In windows hold down the alt key then press the numbers 0150.