Email Address:. Reverse Outlines : Exposing the internal structure of a piece of writing by creating a reverse outline 2. Paragraphs : Treating paragraphs as important units in your writing 3. Transitions : Making effective transitions between sentences, paragraphs, and sections 4. Sentences : Crafting better sentences with three central strategies 5. To read the post that discusses these sources, click here.
A more detailed discussion of books on writing can be found here. Explorations of Style. Skip to content. Dashes Posted on April 6, 6 Comments. Here is an example: Recombinant DNA technology has left an indelible mark on the basic ingredient of human survival—food production. Here is an example: The issues that confront students entering late-stream French immersion programs—most importantly, their lack of familiarity with instructional vocabularies—are a pressing concern for school administrators.
There is some truth to this division, but I find the next three principles more helpful in deciding whether to use double dashes: 1. Like this: Like Loading Bookmark the permalink. Thanks, Jonny. I enjoyed looking through your blog! Good luck with your dissertation. Jonny McCormick April 9, at am Reply.
Christopher Bowden June 28, at pm Reply. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading your blog; best wishes! Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. The colon should simply be removed. Ask yourself a question: does the material preceding the colon stand on its own? One way to tell if the colon has been properly used is to look only at the words that come in front of the colon.
Do they make a complete thought? If not, you may be using the colon improperly. Check above to see if you have made one of the most common mistakes. If it is important that you follow one of these styles precisely, be sure to use the appropriate manual to look up the rule. If the following phrase is a complete independent clause, you may choose to capitalize it or not. Whichever approach you choose, be sure to be consistent throughout your paper.
Example with an independent clause, showing two different approaches to capitalization: The commercials had one message: The geeks shall inherit the earth. The first thing to know when talking about dashes is that they are almost never required by the laws of grammar and punctuation. To set off material for emphasis. Think of dashes as the opposite of parentheses. Where parentheses indicate that the reader should put less emphasis on the enclosed material, dashes indicate that the reader should pay more attention to the material between the dashes.
Dashes add drama—parentheses whisper. Dashes can be used for emphasis in several ways: A single dash can emphasize material at the beginning or end of a sentence. Example: After eighty years of dreaming, the elderly man realized it was time to finally revisit the land of his youth—Ireland. Two dashes can emphasize material in the middle of a sentence.
Some style and grammar guides even permit you to write a complete sentence within the dashes. Example: Everything I saw in my new neighborhood—from the graceful elm trees to the stately brick buildings—reminded me of my alma mater. Don't confuse the dash — with the hyphen - : the dash is longer. As William Strunk Jr. White explained in "The Elements of Style":. There are actually two types of dashes, each with different uses: the em dash —also called the " long dash ," according to Oxford Online Dictionaries—and the en dash , which doesn't have another name but falls between the hyphen and em dash in terms of length.
The en dash is so named because it is approximately the equivalent width of the uppercase letter N and the em dash is roughly the width of an uppercase M. Merriam-Webster says the word dash comes from the Middle English word dasshen , which probably derives from the Middle French term dachier, meaning "to impel forward. The Online Etymology Dictionary says the dash—a "horizontal line used as a punctuation mark"—first appeared in writing and printing in the s.
By the late s, the dash had taken on some very specific roles. MacKellar noted several specific uses for the dash, including:. The last use would today be an en dash, which indicates a range. Though the Associated Press does not use the en dash, the press service nicely describes how other styles do use the shorter dash.
Some other styles call for en dashes to indicate ranges of dates, times, or page numbers, or with some compound modifiers.
For example:. To create an en dash using a keyboard on a Windows-based system, hold down the Alt key and simultaneously type To create this punctuation mark on a Macintosh-based system hold down the Option key and press the Minus key [ - ].
American Psychological Association notes that you would use the en dash for:. Angela Gibson, writing for the MLA Style Center, a writing resource for the Modern Languages Association , says the organization uses an en dash when a single compound adjective is a proper noun, as in:.
She notes that the MLA also calls for an en dash when a compound in the predicate position includes a proper noun:. Use a dash to show that letters or words are missing: They are really f————d up. Typically used for offensive words. I will look ————— the children. Typically used in "missing word" questions. In fact, there are two kinds of dash: the en-dash — , which is the width of the letter "n" and the em-dash — , which is the width of the letter "m" However, the difference between them is rather technical and mainly of value to typographers.
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