| Some people do not use dashes in their writing | | | | or to separate clauses in a sentence. Em dashes |
| because they are not sure of how to use them | | | | may be also used to show an open range: Jane |
| correctly. However, proper use of dashes can add | | | | Smith, 1987- |
| zest to your writing so why not learn the proper | | | | Mac users press shift-option-hyphen to create an |
| way to punctuate a sentence with them? | | | | em dash. The em dash is created in Windows by |
| Whenever you write a sentence that requires a | | | | holding down ALT and typing 0151 on the numeric |
| break in thought, you may be accustomed to | | | | keypad. Microsoft Word will automatically create |
| using double hyphens or two dashes (--); | | | | an em dash whenever you type two hyphens |
| however, the proper length of the dash is | | | | without spaces between them and without |
| dependent upon the punctuation needed in the | | | | spaces before or after the words connected by |
| sentence. The proper name of the symbol(s) you | | | | the hyphens: word--word will convert to |
| need is either an "en" dash , an "em" dash or a | | | | word-word. |
| 3-m dash. Originally the en dash was the width of | | | | Hyphens are used to connect two words and to |
| the letter "N" on a typeset, and the width of the | | | | separate characters in a phone number |
| em dash was the width of "M"; hence the names. | | | | (123-555-0123). |
| En dashes (-) are used to show duration such as | | | | The 3-em dash uses six hyphens before and |
| when writing the time 9:00-5:00, or range such a | | | | after a word ( ------ and ------ ) when a person's |
| date April 15-31 or number 100-150. The en dash | | | | name or some other word(s) is being omitted. |
| can also be used as a hyphen in compound | | | | You may want to start in the middle of a longer |
| adjectives in which one part consists of two | | | | quote while indicating that other words actually |
| words or a hyphenated word: pre-World War I | | | | preceded or followed the part of the quote you |
| era. En dashes do not have spaces in front or | | | | used. For example: |
| behind them. | | | | ------ that religion is a matter that lies solely |
| En dashes are created on a Mac computer by | | | | between man and his God ------ thus building a wall |
| simultaneously pressing option-hyphen. For | | | | of separation between Church and State. ~ |
| Windows users, the en dash is created by holding | | | | Thomas Jefferson |
| down ALT while typing 0150 on the numeric | | | | Now you have the facts about dashes and it's up |
| keypad. | | | | to you whether you decide to dash or not to |
| Em dashes (-) are used in place of a colon or | | | | dash! |
| parenthesis to show an abrupt change in thought | | | | |