We can also choose en and em dashes from a menu of symbols that do not appear on the keyboard.On both PCs and Macs, two hyphens (typed with no space before or after either of them) will convert to an em dash-the full-length one that most of us think of when we hear the word “dash.”.That said, here are guidelines for typing on many keyboards: tell us that they don’t have the following shortcuts on their keyboards. Note that not all keyboards around the world are the same. (The symbol above the hyphen is an underline, not a dash.) Before word processing, we had to make an em dash by typing two hyphens. Typing the En Dash and Em Dash on PCs and MacsĬomputer keyboards lack individual keys for either of the dashes.
By definition, a hanging hyphen will have a space after it but not before it. The other exception is with a hanging hyphen (see, for example, the word “nineteenth” in the phrase “nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature”). One exception is, of course, when the hyphen is used as a minus sign. The Associated Press style (always the outlier) insists on spacing both before and after the em dash. When using the hyphen, the en dash, or the em dash, most-but not all-style books advocate putting space neither before nor after them. Important: Spacing with Hyphens and Dashes
#No em dash on keyboard software
Many people were not even aware of the distinction between the en dash and the em dash until the advent of word processors, when software programs enabled us to use marks of punctuation that once had been available only to professional printers. Typically the writer is telling the reader that the information being set off by em dashes is important. Em dashes draw attention to the information they enclose or set apart. Parentheses tend to downplay an idea they suggest that the information in them is helpful but not necessary. If a comma (or a pair of them) works, use it. Em Dashes, Parentheses, or Commas?Ī good rule of thumb is to reserve em dashes for those places where the comma simply doesn’t provide a strong enough break. If we had used a hyphen in place of each dash two sentences ago, it would seem as though we had hyphenated two pairs of words in the sentence: “tablets-all” and “course-for,” neither of which makes any sense. If we confuse the em dash with the hyphen, we make a sentence virtually impossible to read. We bought markers, paper, pens, and tablets-all of which were on sale, of course-for our clients to use in the courtroom.Dashes are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex or in one that contains a number of commas, as in this example:
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