How To Properly Use Dashes In Writing

Em dashes so called because they are at least historically the width of the character m are used for emphasis or interruption.

How to properly use dashes in writing. But if you learn how to type dashes correctly it will add a more professional feel to anything you write. Semicolons colons and dashes. The en dash may also be used to indicate a connection between two words. So what s the difference. After reading the handout you will be better able to decide when to use these forms of punctuation in your own writing.

Long dashes in writing. In practice many people use hyphens where they need to use dashes. The shorter en dash is used to mark ranges. Examine these useful hyphen em dash and en dash examples. Revised on february 11 2020.

Although many people call the hyphen a dash dash refers to another group of horizontal lines in text. The two most common dashes are the em dash and the en dash. The big daddy of dashes the em dash is generally twice as long again as the en dash. When the dash is used in this way it creates a compound adjective. Use a longer em dash to join independent clauses with words like and but as or and for.

A long dash s primary job is to tell the reader that you ve jumped tracks onto a new though related subject just for a moment. The en dash is approximately the length of the letter n and the em dash the length of the letter m. To properly use a dash in an english sentence start by identifying which dash you should use. The sure fire way of creating an em dash is to use alt and 0151 on the numeric keypad. Em dashes and en dashes vs published on may 31 2019 by amy luo.

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. Here are some examples. Here s a hyphen and here s a dash most of us don t normally type out a dash. What this handout is about. What s the difference between a hyphen and a dash.