![]() Stuart Redman, who was perhaps the quietest man in Arnette, was sitting in one of the cracked plastic Woolco chairs, a can of Pabst in his hand, looking out the big service station window at Number 93. The original reads much better with its simple commas and matches the concept that Stu is “quiet”: The em dashes ruin the flow and call attention to themselves. Notice how an extremely simple paragraph that introduces us to the main character is all chopped up by those dashes. He had grown up that way right here in town-the son of a dentist who had died when Stu was seven-leaving his wife and two other children besides Stu. Stuart Redman-who was perhaps the quietest man in Arnette-was sitting in one of the cracked plastic Woolco chairs-a can of Pabst in his hand-looking out the big service station window at Number 93. Here’s a bit of The Stand, by Stephen King, with all interruptions replaced by em dashes: Throwing em dashes into a sentence whenever there is some sort of break muddies your meaning by ignoring the differences in the types of pauses we make. ![]() Here, the ellipsis indicates that the speaker pauses, but not to change or interrupt the sentence. (right): “I thought I told you to be careful,” he said. (wrong): “I thought I told you to be careful,” he said. “I’m sure we all know who” is not an interruption it’s an aside, or a little comment about the main sentence. (right): Several celebrities (I’m sure we all know who.) are jerks in person. (wrong): Several celebrities-I’m sure we all know who-are jerks in person.Įx. There is no interruption of thought, only a change from a full statement to examples without having to say, “for example.”Įx. The colon here indicates that a list is coming to give examples of what is being talked about. (right): I need a lot of things from you: loyalty, patriotism, and your undivided attention. (wrong): I need a lot of things from you-loyalty, patriotism, and your undivided attention.Įx. “The boy I told you about” is a dependent clause and thus needs simple commas to be set off.Įx. (right): Nicholas, the boy I told you about, is coming to my party. (wrong): Nicholas-the boy I told you about-is coming to my party.Įx. The problem is that, increasingly, people are using em dashes for all manner of interruptions.Įx. (Note that periods indicate the end of a sentence, not an interruption to the sentence.) Other nuanced punctuation for other types of interruptions include, in no particular order, the comma, the colon, parenthesis, and ellipsis. “She would never-Oh, no! I’ve been shot!” It’s a break in the sentence, such as when someone is speaking and has a sudden, unconnected thought.Įx: “But I know I gave the necklace to my sister,” she said. It’s meant to represent a real change in thought or direction. The em dash is the strongest punctuation we have in English for an interruption. Except when people use an en dash when they want to us an em dash, writers tend to use en dashes properly. The en dash is used mostly for number ranges (e.g., 1928–1972) and in some stylebooks to suggest a hierarchical or interactive relationship between two nouns (e.g., father–son relationship). ![]() Get your free sample back in 3 to 6 hours!
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