Dashes

4 Key excerpts on "Dashes"

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  eBook - ePub

  Write to the Point

  A Master Class on the Fundamentals of Writing for Any Purpose

  • Sam Leith(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • The Experiment

    (Publisher)

  Paired Dashes work to mark out parentheses or interpolations. I recognize in myself—because you end up noticing these things—an addiction to them. They seem to me to occupy a role somewhere between the comma and the bracket proper in this case: a little more swashbuckling than the bracket in terms of maintaining the conversational flow of the sentence; a little more emphatic (and, potentially, less confusing) than the comma. The material included between two Dashes is slightly more likely to be important to the meaning of the sentence than material between brackets—an addition or qualification rather than an optional extra.

  There are some qualifications to their use in this role: You can’t use a pair of Dashes to separate out part of a word or an entire sentence, as you can with brackets. Book(s) may not be removed from the library. He looked sheepish when he came in. (I didn’t know that he’d removed some books from the library.) Try punctuating either of those with paired Dashes and see where you get.

  Other punctuation marks don’t always play nicely with Dashes. If a stronger punctuation mark such as a period finds itself next to a dash, for instance, it will likely absorb the dash. So some single-dash sentences are in effect parentheses whose second dash has been gobbled up by a period.

  We should play some Pixies songs at band practice—“Wave of Mutilation,” for example. If that were in brackets, they would close: We should play some Pixies songs at band practice (“Wave of Mutilation,” for example). Likewise, if the parenthetical phrase were brought forward it would earn a second dash. We should play some Pixies songs—“Wave of Mutilation,” for example—at band practice. That’s what I mean about hungry periods. Poor dash!

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  eBook - ePub

  Students Must Write

  A Guide to Better Writing in Coursework and Examinations

  • Robert Barrass(Author)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  see page ).

  Note that one space should be left before the opening bracket and one space after the closing bracket; but that – to distinguish it from a hyphen – a space is left both before and after a dash.

  Colon and semicolon

  A colon may be used to introduce a list (as on page ) or a quotation (as on page ); and may also be used, in place of a full stop, either (a) between two statements of equal weight (as on page ) or (b) between two statements if the second is an explanation or elaboration of the first (as on page ).

  The full stop (or period), question mark, exclamation mark, colon, semicolon, dash, comma, and bracket are all punctuation marks, points or stops. They all indicate pauses. The full stop gives the longest and most impressive pause. The colon gives a shorter pause. Use of the semicolon, which gives a shorter pause than a colon but a longer pause than a comma, may contribute to clarity (for examples, see page ).

  Other essential marks

  Apostrophe

  The apostrophe is the mark that causes the greatest or most obvious difficulty for many who have been taught English in British schools. If you are not sure about its use, first note that an apostrophe is never used in forming the plural: apple becomes apples; criterion, criteria; datum, data; gateau, gateaux; lady, ladies; man, men; mouse, mice; phenomenon, phenomena; and wife, wives. Then note that if, in scholarly writing, you avoid colloquial language (see page ), in which an apostrophe is used to mark a contraction (for example, can’t for cannot, don’t for do not, it’s for it is or it has, that’s for that is, there’s for there is, they’re for they are, who’s for who is, and won’t for will not), you will use an apostrophe only when you wish to indicate that someone or something belongs to someone or something (see page

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  eBook - ePub

  Exploring Grammar Through Texts

  Reading and Writing the Structure of English

  • Cornelia Paraskevas(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  They left early. They were tired from the hike. They left early: they were tired from the hike. They left early; they were tired from the hike. They left early—they were tired from the hike.

  When writers use a period between two sentences, they are providing the highest degree of separation. The colon, semicolon and dash give a medium degree of separation and add meaning for the reader: the colon anticipates explanation—it indicates, in other words, that the clause following it explains the one preceding it; the semicolon lets readers know that there is a logical connection between the two clauses; and the dash makes the readers stop because the clause following it is emphasized.

  Hierarchical order of punctuation marks: In the section above that addressed syntactic punctuation, we saw that punctuation marks indicate boundaries—between sentences, between clauses or within clauses. We can now ‘refine’ our understanding and separate punctuation marks on the basis of the elements they separate. Specifically, on the basis of boundaries they mark (which is another way of expressing the concept ‘elements that marks separate’), punctuation marks can be hierarchically ordered into 4 levels: at the highest level—level 1—we have periods, question marks and exclamation since they set off sentences (hence the term ‘terminal’ punctuation). At level 2, we have colons, parentheses, and Dashes which separate clauses or phrases. At level 3, we have a single mark—the semicolon. It separates independent clauses or non-clausal elements that contain internal punctuation. At level 4—the lowest level—we have the comma; it can separate clauses and phrases.

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  eBook - ePub

  Grammar Survival for Secondary Teachers

  A Practical Toolkit

  • Geoff Barton, Jo Shackleton(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  When we talk about something being ‘in parenthesis’, we’re referring to a word or group of words inserted into a sentence as a kind of afterthought, rather like an ‘aside’ in a play. We usually punctuate parenthetical words by a pair of brackets, Dashes or commas. (The term ‘parentheses’ can also be used to describe a pair of brackets.)

  The words in parenthesis usually provide additional, non-essential information and could be removed without affecting the sense of the sentence:

  •    This poem (written by Heaney in memory of his mother) is one of the most memorable in the anthology. •    This poem – written by Heaney in memory of his mother – is one of the most memorable in the anthology. •    This poem, written by Heaney in memory of his mother, is one of the most memorable in the anthology.

  While we have a choice of using brackets, Dashes or commas, we need to know that they can have slightly different effects in our writing. Brackets and Dashes tend to mark a stronger interruption, whereas commas tend to mark a weaker interruption which can appear more integrated into the sentence:

  •    The Battle of the Somme (one of the most senseless and deadly battles of the First World War) was commemorated on its centenary in July 2016. •    The decision to build the new road is – in my opinion – an absolute disaster. •    This year’s school play was, as always, a great success.

  Dashes tend to be used in more informal writing, as they can create a spontaneous, speechlike effect:

  •    She came running downstairs to answer the phone – I’d repeatedly told her the stair carpet was dangerous – and twisted her ankle.

  A pair of brackets can enclose a complete sentence that’s not part of another sentence. When we do this, the end punctuation goes inside the brackets:

  •    The theatre trip was, as always, a great success. (This year, we went to see Hamlet

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