What’s the Deal with Dashes?

Punctuation marks in English give us vital information about how to read what’s been written and what the different parts of our sentences are doing—colons (:) can indicate that we are about to read a list or definition, semicolons (;) can tell us to pause and prepare for an idea that’s related to what we just read, and quotation marks (““) can indicate someone else’s speech, telling us to use a different voice when we read aloud to kids.

There are general rules that are meant to be followed (“Put two quotation marks around the words that are part of the speech.”), some rules that cause heated arguments (Oxford comma or no Oxford comma?), some rules that should be flagrantly ignored (“Don’t use too many semicolons!”), and some “rules” that can be overlooked without really being noticed by the general reader (“Put an em-dash, rather than an en-dash, to set off a clause within a sentence.”). The use of dashes can cause confusion and contention between editors, authors, and readers—after all, there are three types of dashes, and they’re all just slightly different lengths of the same straight horizontal line.

What are the three types of dashes, and what can each do in a piece of writing?

The Three Dashes

Hyphen: The hyphen (-) is the shortest of the three dashes. It’s also perhaps the most memorable type of dash due to its heavy use in joined last names, spelling bees, and math class (“Jazz Smith-Bradley bought forty-seven chocolate-covered almonds.”). As seen here, hyphens are almost exclusively used to join together compound words, including nouns, numbers, and adjectives that work together. You can also see them when you read on your Kindle, as hyphens are the dashes used to indicate a break in a word that will continue on the next line. You’ll never see a hyphen by itself in the middle of a sentence; it’s always tightly joined to one or two words or word parts.

En Dash: The en dash (–) is the middle-length dash. It’s named “en dash” because in typography, it’s roughly the same width as an “n”. An en dash can be found on gravestones, in airports, and in homework directions (“In your textbook on pages 79–80, you can read about how Kenneth Johnston (1999–2065) was on the disastrous Beijing–Paris flight.”). It’s used mainly in science, history, and travel writing. This medium-sized dash represents the space in between page numbers, dates, data sets, and destinations. If you’re working with adjectives that have multiple words, you can use an en dash instead of a hyphen to add a little extra strength: “She wore a vintage handsewn 1920’s flapper–style dress to the homecoming dance.”

Em Dash: The final and longest dash, the em dash (—) is about the same width as a typed upper-case “M”. Its main job is to set off unimportant information or interrupting ideas (“An em dash—the longest dash—is the coolest dash of them all.”). It is the most versatile dash and can be used interchangeably with other pieces of punctuation, such as semicolons, parentheses, and commas. This dash tells you to pause and get ready for a new idea or phrase. If you read a piece of fiction, it’s probably going to be the most-used dash you see, especially in dialogue (“Class, please sit down and—Ryan, stop tearing up that piece of paper—get out your textbooks!”).

In The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White advise “[using an em] dash only when a more common mark of punctuation seems inadequate,” but feel free to sprinkle them in and add some spice to your writing!

Formatting the Dashes

While there are some generally-accepted rules when it comes to how the dashes should be set within a sentence, some style guides might differ. Hyphens and en dashes are generally across-the-board, requiring no dashes on either side.

Em dashes tend to be the trickiest, so editors should pay attention to the style guide requirements. Most publishing houses and editors recommend no spaces around an em dash. However, a magazine or publisher might follow a style guide that requires a space on either side of the em dash. If you’re writing for a publisher, play close attention to their requirements regarding em dashes.

If you’re working in Microsoft Word, you can easily create the en and em dashes with a few strokes of the keys. To create an en dash, type a word + space + two hyphens + space + word + space (word_--_word_). After you hit the last space bar, the two hyphens should merge into an en dash.

To create an em dash, follow the same instructions, but without the middle spaces. Type a word + two hyphens + word + space (word--word_). Again, the two hyphens should merge into an em dash!

I don’t own any Apple devices, but according to Benjamin Dryer in the ever-helpful and entertaining Dryer’s English, you should be able to type an en dash by hitting option-hyphen. Good luck, Mac users!

How Important are Dashes, Really?

Misused dashes might not cause a ruckus amongst the casual reader. If someone is reading a book and sees an en dash where an em dash should go, they will most likely understand the intent of the dash and read on without problem. However, in academic writing or published works, a confusion of dashes might undo some credibility and cause frustration amongst dash connoisseurs. Consistency in use is the key, and Dryer emphasizes visual balance—if your dashes look wrong or wonky, change the dashes or try something different. If you feel that something looks wrong, your audience will notice for sure!

Read more about Grammar and Punctuation!

There is apparently a mythical piece of punctuation called the 3-em dash, which is used in legal documents to omit information.

If you’d like to read more about grammar and punctuation rules, I’d recommend the two books I mentioned earlier, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style and Benjamin Dryer’s Dryer’s English.

Happy grammar-ing!