How To Use Dashes With Commas

A colon can be used immediately after the greeting in a formal letter less formal letters tend to use a comma in this location.

How to use dashes with commas. To whom it may concern. Use dashes in place of a comma em dashes can be used in pairs to replace commas when writing a parenthetical or interruptive phrase. Remember that the dash is considered more jarring than using commas or parentheses so consider which punctuation achieves the desired effect. Use a dash to cut off dialogue. 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.

For example i never said he began when typing a completed sentence a comma precedes the closing quotation mark and the attribution. When the dash is used in this way it creates a compound adjective. It is usually used as an alternative to another type of punctuation. Generally speaking the dash does not have a unique role. In general you can think of parentheses commas and dashes as a continuum of marks.

When used to extend a sentence a dash can replace a semicolon a colon or three dots used as a pause for effect. Let s start with those quiet parentheses. When used as parentheses dashes are alternatives to brackets or commas. Using a colon between a verb and its object or complement. 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.

Words and phrases between dashes are not generally part of the subject. Use a longer em dash to join independent clauses with words like and but as or and for. First the dash can be used where commas or parentheses might be used as an aside or interruption in the middle of a sentence. You use them to surround something that seems a bit out of place in the sentence an aside a clarification or a commentary. Dashes replace otherwise mandatory punctuation such as the commas after iowa and 2013 in the following examples.

Place em dashes around non essential information or a list in the middle of a sentence like you would with commas. The dashes have a slightly more emphatic feel making the reader focus on this information that is set inside the special marks. Please accept my application for the position advertised in the news and observer. An em dash is made by typing two hyphens. Joe and his trusty mutt was always welcome.