An em dash or pair of dashes often sets off illustrative or amplifying material introduced by such phrases as for example, namely, and that is, when the break in continuity is greater than that shown by a comma, or when the dash would clarify the sentence structure better than a comma. ...
When parentheses are used to offset thoughts within a sentence, em dashes can take their place to make your writing less formal. How to Use an Em Dash An em dash is used to offset thoughts in sentences, much like colons, parentheses, and commas. Let’s look at how an em dash can ...
The en dash: Marking a range Other uses of the en dash British style: En dashes in place of em dashes The em dash: Marking a break in a sentence Em dashes can be used in pairs to mark off additional information that is not essential to understand the sentence. Here they function simil...
Use em dashes instead, like in this example: Good punctuation—periods, commas and dashes—make your writing easier to read. If the phrase is at the end of the sentence, you only need one em dash: The secret weapon of a good writer is the thesaurus—hundreds of synonyms for each word....
Em dashes save the day when other punctuation would be awkward. For instance, a single em dash can replace a pair of parentheses around material at the end of a sentence, or a pair of em dashes can replace a pair of commas around a clause that contains other commas, to make the senten...
Em dashes are the width of (you guessed it) a capital M. Most often, they’re used in pairs to emphasize an element or elements within a sentence: Cruciferous vegetables—broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, for instance—are said to lower the risk of cancer. ...
en dash: when to use each symbol My editor made me add this, so really quickly, here's the difference between an em and en dash: The em dash (—) is used to separate extra information or mark a break in a sentence. For example: A notebook, pen, and laptop—these were all in...
To set off words and phrases:Writers have effectively used em dashes to shoehorn a parenthetical thought or remark into a sentence, as this quote illustrates: "Copper Lincoln cents—pale zinc-coated steel for a year in the war—figure in my earliest impressions of money." ...
The other type of dash is the em-dash. This dash is longer than the en-dash and is about the size of the letter M in width. This is how it might look in a sentence: “Once the mayor collected all of the votes on the matter—a total of 385—he was then able to get a feel ...
Here are the situations you might use an em dash: 1. To insert a phrase into the middle of a sentence as a stronger comma. Em dashes might be used instead of a comma if there are a lot of commas already used in a sentence or paragraph and you want to switch it up, or for a ...