How To Use Dashes In Writing

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.

How to use dashes in writing. The name em indicates that the dash is roughly the size of the letter m. Similarly limit the frequency of dash use in your writing. Dashes are usually considered to be informal. My brothers richard and john are visiting hanoi. Use a dash to show a pause or break in meaning in the middle of a sentence.

In windows hold down the alt key then press the numbers 0150. To set off material for emphasis. 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 dash works somewhat like parentheses or commas but it is used where a stronger punctuation is needed.

Em dashes so called because they are at least historically the width of the character m are used for emphasis or interruption. 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. An em dash is used to indicate a break in a sentence or question. 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. Could use commas in the 15th century when of course nobody had electricity water was often pumped by hand.

It should be reserved to emphasize a limited number of important points. When the dash is used in this way it creates a compound adjective. You might want to replace the use of a dash with a set of parentheses or even commas. Us publishers and the oxford university press in the uk choose to use closed up em dashes em dashes without any spaces where other uk publishers might use spaced en dashes. The words between a pair of dashes may or may not form a complete sentence.

Think of dashes as the opposite of parentheses. Rather than placing parentheses around a phrase within a statement writers can opt to surround the phrase with an em dash on either end. They can be used on their own or in pairs to offset a word or phrase. The information inside the dashes is off topic. On a mac hold down the option key then press the minus key.