![]() In this use, em dashes are similar to commas and parentheses, but there are subtle differences. To insert an en dash, press Ctrl+Hypen on a PC or Option+Hypen on a Mac.Įm Dash: That’s the long dash, and as Grammarist says, “Em dashes set apart parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. The hyphen has a dedicated key on both Mac and PC: it’s on the top row between “0” and “=.”Įn Dash: According to CMOS, en dashes (which are half the length of the em dash) “specify any kind of range, which is why they properly appear in indexes when a range of pages is cited (e.g., 147–48)” and this is also true for date ranges like the period 1948–1960. The problem with hyphens arises when they are used where another mark-the em or en dash-might be more appropriate. Hyphens are very common in English, and the hyphen key is easy to find on the keyboard. Hyphen: As the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) says, the hyphen “connects two things that are intimately related, usually words that function together as a single concept or work together as a joint modifier.” Examples include op-in, tax-free, one-third, and so on. For instance, a manuscript might come back with markups like these:īecause self-publishers are responsible for everything that ends up in their books, you need to know what each of these characters means, the differences between hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes, and how to get them into your book in the right way. In the normal course of things, your editor will be correcting any errors in dash use and indicating where each type of dash should be used. To make sure we’re all on the same page, here are each of the three marks under discussion, each next to the letter “a” to provide a point of reference: Now that you understand this very old printer’s measurement, we can dive into the three types of dashes commonly used in written works. ![]() The em dash in both instances is exactly the same width, even though the capital “M”s are very different: You can see why the “capital letter M” method isn’t logical in this example of two capital letter “M”s from two different fonts. An em is simply the horizontal measure exactly corresponding to the type size. If you change the type to 14 points, the em changes to 14 points as well. So for a typeface being set in 12 point, an “em” is 12 points wide, and so is an em dash. It’s based on an entirely different and dynamic measurement: the point size of the typeface itself. However, the em dash-technically, a printing term-has nothing to do with the width of a capital M. This is a common error that arises from the fact that in many fonts, the capital M is the widest letter, often the same width as the em dash. ( stenoscript ) When used as punctuation, an en or em dash is doubled, like a long ⹀, to distinguish it from its phonetic use.I read on a grammar blog recently that “…the em dash is named after its length-it’s about the same width as the capital letter M.”.For example, with mo-n for 'more than', the dash is likely to be written at x-height. ( stenoscript ) The dash may be written low, along the baseline, or high, at x-height, as convenient for whichever letters it links to.( stenoscript ) the suffixes or sequences mand, mend, mond, -ment (e.g.( stenoscript ) the sound sequences /(V)nd/, /(V)nt/.(see: -t that, -r their/there, -z these, -a they, -s this, -oz those) ( stenoscript ) the letter sequence ⟨th⟩.It's good practice to footnote N/A or N/D the first time it is used.Įnglish Multiple parts of speech We can use the word none or N/D (no data), or insert an em dash any of these entries show that we haven't simply forgotten to fill the cell. Nagle, Handbook for preparing engineering documents: from concept to completion, 1995, p.
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