A Dash of Punctuation

Another editor for me to follow

colonialist's avatarLeslie Hyla Winton Noble

 Dashing from Dashes

– – —Dash

I am fond of using dashes in my writing – dash it all, why not?. However, I have tended to become lazy, and to use a hyphen for all purr-pussies. (As in kit-cat?).
As a professional editor, I should be more meticulous. There is a distinct difference between appearance and usage of a hyphen, an en dash, and an em dash. Here are the rules for each, and I have resolved to stick to them in future.

The hyphen (-) is found on the top row of the keyboard below the underline. It is used without spaces to join two or more words into one concept such as up-to-date or flower-child.

An en dash (–) has the width of ‘n’; it is obtained by using Ctrl and the minus sign on number keys; and is primarily used to replace the word ‘to’. Examples: Opening…

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8 thoughts on “A Dash of Punctuation

  1. John's avatar

    Thanks for that. I like using dashes but on my laptop the ctrl – combination that was mentioned just minimizes my screen.

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    1. LordBeariOfBow's avatar

      Strange; that’s what happened on mine and I have no idea why

      Liked by 1 person

  2. PiedType's avatar

    Apparently my computer automatically converts two hypens to a dash, and so I end up using dashes a lot. Too much, probably. I’ve gotten really lazy with punctuation (three periods do not make a proper ellipsis, for example). The only time I go out of my way to find the special character is when the computer insists on putting in a single opening quote instead of an apostrophe, as in ’twas. (I haven’t hit “post” yet, but I’m guessing the font in the post above will not use a proper apostrophe.

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    1. PiedType's avatar

      Well, I was wrong. The computer did it correctly.

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      1. LordBeariOfBow's avatar

        I’m glad somebodygot it right o_O

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    2. LordBeariOfBow's avatar

      Now I”m really confused 😦

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  3. Unknown's avatar

    Good tips.

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    1. LordBeariOfBow's avatar

      Yes I was surprised by how easy it is when you know the right way, I’d tried but failed miserably to do what turns out to be so damned easy XD

      Like

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