When To Use Em Dashes Instead Of Commas

13 Jan, 2022

687 Em dashes with other punctuation. However some style guides such as The Chicago Manual of Style prescribe unspaced em dashes.

Punctuation Where When Why And How To Use It Xterraweb Editing Writing Writing A Book Punctuation

Em dashes are the same width as the font height.

When to use em dashes instead of commas. You can also use it to put emphasis on the ending of your sentence. The em dash is used to highlight a. Please see the companion informational PEP describing style guidelines for the C code in the C implementation of Python.

This document and PEP 257 Docstring Conventions were adapted from Guidos original Python Style Guide essay with some additions from. My brothersRichard and Johnare visiting Hanoi. Instead you place the period after the parenthetical sentence.

Also use the en dash in chemical abbreviations such as NiAlSi. 521 Use spaced en dashes - rather than close-set em dashes or spaced hyphens - to set off phrases. Its up to you.

The en dash can also signify a rhetorical pause. It supplies much stronger emphasis than the comma colon or semicolon it often replaces. Positioned around interrupting elements em dashes have the opposite effect of parenthesesem dashes emphasize.

This is an em dash. 523 Use the em dash to introduce speakers in narrative dialogue. The em dash.

Parenthetical phrase with commas. Some styles use unspaced em dashes instead of spaced en dashes. 682 Em dashes instead of commas parentheses or colons.

You can see this wrong-en method used in countless websites magazines and papers as a replacement for the m-dash. 685 Em dashes with that is namely for example and similar expressions. 3 Use a comma to separate an introductory element from the rest of the sentence.

Chinese punctuation uses a different set of punctuation marks from European languages and has shapes that are derived from both Western and Chinese sources. The en dash a hyphen with a growth spurt is used to represent the words to or through when specifying a range. In the typographers bible The Elements of Typographic Style Bringhurst recommends using en dashes surrounded by spaces as he believes it is less visually disruptive.

For example straight quotes are changed to curly quotes hyphens are changed to dashes where appropriate three consecutive dots are converted to an ellipsis and spaces are removed before question marks exclamation marks commas etc. They can be used in the same way as parenthesesto insert an idea in the middle of a sentence as this example doesor they can be used like a bullet point in a list. The em dash the longest and most versatile is used to act as a more emphatic comma semicolon or colon.

Do not overuse the em dash in formal writing such as business letters research papers and articles. They can also be used around parenthetical expressions such as this one rather than the em dashes preferred by some publishers. Dashes should be en dashes rather than em dashes or hyphens.

This document gives coding conventions for the Python code comprising the standard library in the main Python distribution. In LaTeX 1 -gives you a hyphen 2 --an en dash and 3 ---an em dash. If you introduce a sentence with a transition word eg.

The em dash can replace a comma a colon or parenthesis. En-dashes can be used instead of pairs of commas that mark off a nested clause or phrase. Here they function similarly to parentheses or a pair of commas.

For the duration of the experiment the dieters were instructed to avoid a meat b. However the model is not always accurate. Use a dash to show a pause or break in meaning in the middle of a sentence.

This year Mark has traveled to quite a few countriesPoland Germany Lithuania Georgia and Greece. In terms of adding emphasis to a phrase the comma falls somewhere between the parentheses and the em-dash. Em dashes can be used in pairs to replace commas when writing a parenthetical or interruptive phrase.

For example an opinion piece from The Guardian is entitled. Marking a break in a sentence. An em dash is usually written without spaces on either side although some style guides do recommend using spaces.

The dashes have a slightly more emphatic feel making the reader focus on this information that is set inside the special marks. 684 Em dashes to indicate sudden breaks. Dashes are often used informally instead of commas colons and brackets.

A dash may or may not have a space on either side of it. However here is what The Chicago Manual of Style says. 686 Em dashes in place of commas.

1 Add a comma when two separate sentences are combined Example. An en dash is longer than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash. With longer introductory phrases that set the stage for the main part of the sentence its generally best to use a comma especially if the phrase is more.

He was tall dark and handsome. Additional amplifying and parenthetical material. Should I use en dashes with spaces or em dashes without spaces.

522 Use close-set en dashes or three-to-em dashes between digits to indicate a range. Commas to introduce a sentence. In my writing as a manager corresponding with government officials and politicians and also as a marketer communicating with real people I use space-n-dash-space instead of the em-dash just to keep everyone happy.

When quoted in text or listed in a bibliography titles of books journals plays and other freestanding works are. We purchased some cheese and we purchased some fruit. An em dash has the longest line length.

Both dashes are grammatically correct and can be used to show. Thus instead of writing He was strolling along the deck when a wave washed him overboard he writes While he was strolling along the deck a wave washed him overboard This is an elementary principle but it is amazing how many aspirant prose writers are innocent of it. Another thing to keep in mind is that many sentences already have commas so using.

Her answer was loud and clearNo. 688 Em dashes in lieu of. Em dashes have multiple purposes.

If you were wondering whether you could have used commas in place of parentheses or em-dashes in the examples above you can. A good rule is to use parentheses commas semicolons and colons instead of em dashes in formal writing. Em dashes can be used in pairs to mark off additional information that is not essential to understand the sentence.

The blocks innocuous location does not need underlining with dashes. Em-dashes Instead of Commas. In addition to converting to title case the converter also performs small typographic corrections.

2 Use commas between words in a seriesNotice that a comma does not follow the last word in the series. Various style guides treat dashes differently. The em is an expansive attention-seeking dash.

Although there was a long native tradition of textual annotation to indicate the boundaries of sentences and clauses the concept of punctuation marks being a mandatory and integral part of the text was only adapted in the written language. However the model is not always accurate. However hence indeed furthermore follow it with a comma.

683 Em dash between noun and pronoun. Compose three sentences to illustrate analogous uses of 1 commas 2 em dashes and 3 parentheses. When using the en dash to represent a range if the word from is used the word to must be used rather than an en dash eg from 5 to 50 times.

The hyphen - the shortest is used to join multiple words that function together as a single concept aka. Use Dashes in Place of a Comma. Never use both types of dashes for the same.

Prior to computers people were taught to underline titles of books and plays and to surround chapters articles songs and other shorter works in quotation marks. Do not confuse a dash with a hyphen - which is shorter. The em dash is mostly used in informal writing such as friendly letters emails and journals.

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