Drama: February 23, 2022 Issue [#11211] |
This week: Punctuation, Part 2! Edited by: Lilli 🧿 ☕ More Newsletters By This Editor
1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions
This week we will talk a little bit about the disingenuous dash!
Not to be confused with the hyphen or minus sign.
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The "dash" is not a solo artist, it's more of a quartet where each member wears the same suit but plays a different instrument.
The 'en dash':
The en dash is used as a substitute for the word "to" in numerical ranges or relationships (1939-1945, Paris-Roubaix Bicycle Race); acts as kind of a superhyphen to connect compound terms {pre-World War) and is occasionally used to hide offensive letters or sensitive w - - ds by hiding individual letters.
The 'em dash':
Used singly, the em dash indicates an instance of aposiopesis, an abrupt change or end to a thought or speech ("What the —?"); doubled up, em dashes sensor entire portions of w——s. To further complicate matters, en and em dashes sometimes means the same thing!
American style guides advocate using unspaced emdashes to set apart parenthetical clauses—like this—whereas most British texts prefer a space before and after the dash.
The 'quotation dash':
An exotic little creature, the 'quotation dash', used by some authors to denote spoken dialogue. Slightly longer than the em dash, a quotation dash is used to introduce each new line of dialogue.
The 'figure dash':
This dash is used to divide strings of numbers, such as phone numbers (555-1234), that do not represent ranges.
Clues to the genesis of the dash, in any of its forms, are elusive. First, and most surprising, the dash and the hyphen seem to have absolutely nothing in common except for their visual appearance.
Is it any wonder we're all so confused?
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Need a laugh?
Exercises to improve your writing, overcome writer's block, or just practice.
Written by our resident Comma-Queen, Winnie Kay
Written by Mary T (Ravalyn)
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