How To Use Em Dashes In A Sentence
Although colons and commas can serve the same function em dashes create a more dramatic effect.
How to use em dashes in a sentence. 2 the weary traveler forgot something in the airport bathroom her plane ticket. When a sentence begins with an independent clause and ends with a list you can use a colon between the clause and the list. The em dash can be used in place of a colon when you want to emphasize the conclusion of your sentence. A good way to remember the difference between these two dashes is to visualize the en dash as the length of the letter n and the em dash as the length of the letter m. Dashes are used to separate groups of words not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does.
For example em dashes are used when a parenthetical remark contains an internal comma or would otherwise sound awkward if enclosed by commas. Place em dashes around non essential information or a list in the middle of a sentence like you would with commas. Em dashes also precede quotation attributions. Em dash is versatile in its own terms it can even take the place of the semicolon. The em dash in place of a colon.
Once again the em dash adds more emphasis than the traditional punctuation mark. The most common types of dashes are the en dash and the em dash. Use a longer em dash to join independent clauses with words like and but as or and for. To illustrate i m going to reproduce the first sentence of this paragraph but with a. Use an em dash to bring focus to a list.
There are three forms of dashes. Use an em dash but use it wisely. Em dashes set apart parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. To do a find and or replace plug the code into either the find what or replace with text boxes to search for or replace with an em dash. In this use em dashes are similar to commas and parentheses but there are subtle differences.
They provide variety to your sentence structure plus add style to your writing. If you know of another way please share in the comments. Take the following sentence as an example. Em dashes can be used to emphasize important or essential information midsentence or at the end of sentences. Jamel brinkley from no more than a bubble in a lucky man this is a straightforward but captivating look at how an em dash can be used in a sentence to create an image for the reader.