Using the ‘em dash’ and other Dashes
I am not a strict gramma and syntax person but there are some regular syntactical errors that writers make over and over that do bother me. One of these involves the use, or, more accurately, the non-use, of the 'em dash'. So many writers use a hyphen or standard dash (en dash) where an em dash was supposed to be used. The three most common types of dashes used are:
- The hyphen (-) [Alt+45].
- The en dash (–) [Alt+0150, or Ctrl+Num- in Microsoft Office].
- The em dash (—) [Alt+0151, or Ctrl+Alt+Num- in Microsoft Office].