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#5. Dash It All! Part A: Hyphen and En Dash, more in SDW/EG member Larry Edwards’ series on common errors writers make.
From the Editor’s Eye
The 10 Most Common Errors Made by Writers
(And How to Fix Them)
The sixth of a ten-part series.
#5. Dash It All! Part A: Hyphen and En Dash
I must dash—but I am taking time to post the first of a two-parter on those straight-line thingies people use (and abuse) when “punchuating” their words. (Yep, these’re worth fightin’ over!) I will post the second part next week.
We have three types of punctuation marks that look enough alike to create confusion:
You see? Size does matter. (“en” and “em” indicate their respective widths)
These marks are used to either to JOIN or SEPARATE:
- Hyphen joins syllables, words, and numbers
- En dash joins syllables, words, and numbers
- Em dash separates words and phrases
People often confuse the hyphen with the dash, the em dash in particular. Probably because the hyphen is the most similar character…
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