Its only goal is to draw attention to whatever comes behind it in the most dramatic way possible. It can be a comma, a semicolon, or a colon-if you want it to be. There are no hard and fast rules with the em-dash. In the meantime, a contender has risen as an alternative to all intra-sentence punctuation-the em-dash. Vonnegut agreed he claimed that semicolons only exist to 'show you've been to college.' But, even she understands that 'the semicolon is a place where our anxieties and our aspirations about language, class, and education are concentrated so that in this small mark, big ideas are distilled down to a few winking drops of ink.'Īccording to Watson, the battle for the semicolon comes down to grammar snobs who'd like the world to adhere to black-and-white rules and lawless populists who don't want to be hemmed in by dusty grammar books that no one reads. Grammarian and self-proclaimed 'reformed grammar fetishist,' Cecelia Watson has written an entire book about this ungainly love-child of a colon and a comma, aptly called Semicolon. A semicolon looks like the love child of a colon and a comma. If we accept that symmetry is a mark of beauty, the asymmetry of the semicolon makes it Frankenstein's Monster of punctuation. Writer Donald Barthelme suggests semicolons are 'ugly, ugly as a tick on a dog's belly.' Subscribe to my monthly e-newsletter to receive writing and grammar tips.Why is there so much hatred for one little punctuation mark? It might all come down to aesthetics. Improve your grammar and punctuation with Online Writing Training’s online Grammar, Punctuation and Usage course. In business writing, many writers use a hyphen instead of an en rule, but an en rule is useful because it creates more space between items. Sydney–Melbourne flights, but 45 BC – 1600 AD.

show an association between two separate wordsĪccording to the Australian Style manual, an en rule is unspaced if one word or figure is linked, but spaced if there is more than one linked word on either or both sides.

The en rule is half the width of an em rule, or about the width of the letter e. I used to use the traditional em rule, but have switched to the Microsoft default and like it. The weather is wonderful – how was your holiday?

In business writing, many writers use the Microsoft default for a dash (textual dash). The Australian government style manual, Style manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers, recommends no spaces round the em rule. No-one-except the secretary-remembered to bring their lunch. Make sure your passport is current-you have to pay a premium to get a passport in a hurry.

provide additional or explanatory information.

The weather is wonderful-how was your holiday?

mark an abrupt change in the direction of a sentence.

You use the em rule to separate text when you:

The em rule is roughly the width of a capital M and is commonly known as a dash. The Microsoft default for a dash is called the ‘textual dash’. You use a longer dash to separate information and a shorter dash to link words.Įm and en rules are sometimes called em and en dashes. Styles for em and en rules and the textual dash - em rule – textual dash – en ruleĭashes are stronger than a comma and less formal than brackets.

When to use em dash