Em Dash Spaces

Using em dashes instead of parentheses puts the focus on the information between the em dashes.

Em dash spaces. The em dash in place of a colon. One exception is of course when the hyphen is used as a minus sign. If you re writing for a newspaper magazine or website that uses associated press style put in the spaces. The name comes from the fact that in tradtional typesetting the dash is the same width as a capital m.

Miss s killed professor p with a candlestick in the study. The associated press style always the outlier insists on spacing both before and after the em dash. Most writers and style guides use the em dash without spaces on either side. Aug 5 13 at 14 47.

Note that there is no space added on either side of an em dash. A pair of em dashes can replace a pair of parentheses. He was travelling very quickly the trees were a blur through the window but the train showed no sign of slowing down. A pair of em dashes can be used in place of commas to enhance readability.

Em dashes in place of parentheses. 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. No spaces for hyphen. You may also be interested in.

An em dash has no space before or after unless you re doing some fancy word replacing maneuvers with a 2 em dash. Dashes are considered less. Some use the equivalent of three linked hyphens surrounded by a space on each side like this and some omit the surrounding spaces like this. Every style guide i checked except the ap stylebook stated there should be no spaces between an em dash and the adjacent words.

The em dash can. Em dashes are often used to set off parenthetical information. Its use or misuse for this purpose is a matter of taste and subject to the effect on the writer s or reader s ear. The em dash has several uses.

That means it is a style choice. Glitter felt yarn and buttons his kitchen looked as if a clown had exploded. For this usage make sure you use two em dashes. Em dash em dashes in place of commas.

Otherwise leave them out. These two are often hard to discern visually otherwise but they have much different functions one connects words the other splits clauses so the distinction is quite important. Em dashes are especially common in informal writing such as personal emails or blogs but it s best to use them sparingly when you are writing formally. It allows in a manner similar to parentheses an additional thought to be added within a sentence by sort of breaking away from that sentence as i ve done here.

Use one before the parenthetical information and one after it.