The hyphen joins two equally emphasized words The
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The hyphen (-) joins two equally emphasized words: • The morning’s blue-black cold • Noah Munley-Hanscom • The restaurant was famous for its man-eating shark.
The dash (—) separates two ideas
ABRUPT CHANGE: Use dashes to indicate an abrupt change in thought in a sentence or an emphatic pause: • We will fly to Austin in May – if the convention isn’t cancelled. • Fox offered a plan – it was unprecedented – to raise revenues.
SERIES WITHIN A PHRASE: When a non-essential-phrase that otherwise would be set off by commas contains a series of words that must be separated by commas, use dashes to set off the full phrase: • He listed the budget items – advertising, sales, and fundraisers – that would be in next year’s budget.
ATTRIBUTION: Use a dash before an author’s or composer’s name at the end of a quotation: “Who steals my purse steals trash. ” –Shakespeare
There are two kinds of dashes: 1. The Em dash is longer and goes between two words with no spaces. 2. Em dash — Option + Shift + hyphen 1. The En dash is shorter and goes between two words with a space on either side. 4. EN dash – Option + hyphen
EM DASH: He listed the budget items—advertising, sales and fundraisers—that would be in next year’s budget. EN DASH: He listed the budget items – advertising, sales and fundraisers – that would be in next year’s budget.
DON’T EVER DO IT, HOLMES: NEVER use a hyphen when a dash is called for! NEVER use two consecutive hyphens to indicate a dash!