Since we’re in the March Madness season, one of my favorite uses of alliteration, let’s talk about a little piece of punctuation called the “em dash.” As you can see in the title line above, em dashes look like really long hyphens, which is precisely what they are.
So why do they exist? Where and when do you use them in writing?
According to The Chicago Manual of Style, basically the sacred text of book publishing, an em dash can be used to indicate a break or interruption in a sentence, like this:
I’m typing a blog post about—wait, did the dryer just go off?
An em dash can also be used to set off part of a sentence for special emphasis, like this:
Blog posts about punctuation—especially confusing things like hyphens and dashes—are helpful for authors and editors alike.
You might be asking yourself at this point, “Aren’t those the same jobs that commas and parentheses do?” You’re not wrong, clever one. An em dash simply provides another choice, another tool in an author’s kit.
How do you get this lovely piece of punctuation into your writing?
In MS Word, you can simply type two hyphens in a row and MS Word will automatically convert them into an em dash once you finish typing the next word in your sentence. Or, if that doesn’t seem to be working, you can go to the “Insert” menu, choose “Symbols,” click “More Symbols” at the bottom of the menu, and there it is, third row down from the top.
In Google Docs, go to the “Insert” menu, choose “Special Characters,” then choose “Punctuation” and “Dash/Connector” from the two drop-down menus in the inset.
Feeling confused? Don’t worry about it. That’s where professional editors and proofreaders come into play. We’ll check your text for correct and consistent use of punctuation, including the em dash.
Reach out today if you’ve got a piece of writing that I can help you polish before you send it out into the world. I’ll ease all your punctuation worries, and more! And stay tuned for new blog posts at Home | StephB-Editing.
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