How To Use Dashes In Writing

My brothers richard and john are visiting hanoi.

How to use dashes in writing. Similarly limit the frequency of dash use in your writing. In windows hold down the alt key then press the numbers 0150. 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. To set off material for emphasis. Think of dashes as the opposite of parentheses.

An em dash is used to indicate a break in a sentence or question. Although many people call the hyphen a dash dash refers to another group of horizontal lines in text. When the dash is used in this way it creates a compound adjective. The information inside the dashes is off topic. They can be used on their own or in pairs to offset a word or phrase.

The name em indicates that the dash is roughly the size of the letter m. Dashes are usually considered to be informal. Using the en dash to denote a connection the en dash may also be used to indicate a connection between two words. Use a dash to show a pause or break in meaning in the middle of a sentence. On a mac hold down the option key then press the minus key.

The words between a pair of dashes may or may not form a complete sentence. 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. 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. Rather than placing parentheses around a phrase within a statement writers can opt to surround the phrase with an em dash on either end. You might want to replace the use of a dash with a set of parentheses or even commas.

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. The dash works somewhat like parentheses or commas but it is used where a stronger punctuation is needed. The two most common dashes are the em dash and the en dash. Em dashes so called because they are at least historically the width of the character m are used for emphasis or interruption.