My husband and I would like to take a moment to speak to you about dashes and hyphens – those overworked particles of punctuation so liberally sprinkled throughout your communications. You may know hyphens as en dashes (shorter dashes) and dashes as em dashes (longer dashes) or double dashes.
Older readers may remember pre-computer days when em dashes were typed as --. Many use en dashes exclusively, but this variance may be overlooked provided that whichever pattern is used is at least used consistently throughout a single document.
Hyphens
Use hyphens (en dashes) as part of a compound word (as in ninety-nine Luftballons), or between multiple modifiers if they aid understanding (as in three quarter-hour sessions). Do not insert spaces before or after a hyphen.
Usage conventions are in a state of constant flux. Recommendations vary from grammar book to grammar book, and over time. For example, database started out as two separate words (data base), temporarily became hyphenated (data-base) and now regularly appears as one word (database). Similarly, the hyphens in online and email are in the process of disappearing now. While We still see on-line and e-mail from time to time, online and email are much more common.
Grammar moves in the direction of simplification: if the punctuation isn’t necessary for understanding, it eventually gets dropped.
> Please note that Latin phrases are not subject to the vagaries of English usage. Latin is a dead language and therefore cannot evolve or change. For example, the Latin phrase ad hoc has been, and remains, two separate words. There is no such word as ad-hoc (or adhoc for that matter).
If in doubt about whether or not to use a hyphen, please don’t rely on the language, spell check, or grammar functions on your word processing program to give you the answer – these functions are spotty at best, and occasionally out and out wrong. Once again We observe that English is not a forte with Americans, programmers, or American programmers.
Refer to an authoritative dictionary (such as Oxford), or talk to someone in Documentation or Corporate Communications about conventions currently in use in your organization. When in doubt, corporate style guides trump personal preference.
Dashes
Use dashes (em dashes) as part of a sentence to indicate a break or shift in a sentence – like this.
Some organizations recommend that writers insert a single space before and after a dash used in a sentence, although many other authorities advise against inserting these extra spaces.
Use a pair of dashes -– like the ones you see here -– to indicate a subordinate clause in a sentence that could have been punctuated with commas or parentheses (curved brackets).
Whether you choose to use commas, dashes or parentheses depends on how much of a break you mean to indicate.
- Commas, the least intrusive, don’t draw much attention to themselves.
- Dashes – more obvious forms of punctuation – indicate an inserted element.
- Parentheses (short of a period) are the most emphatic break of all.
Rules of thumb
- Hyphens should be used in compound words (and between words used as modifiers) as often as necessary to clarify meaning.
- Dashes should be used sparingly to indicate a strong break or shift in a sentence. A dash is not a catch-all punctuation mark replacing commas, colons, semi-colons and periods.
- Whatever pattern you choose to adopt, use that pattern consistently throughout a single document or series of documents.
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