![]() When to use An Em-Dash or HyphenĪn em-dash is defined as a punctuation mark that is longer than both an en-dash and a hyphen. If you overdo it, your writing will look like Morse code. The em-dash exists in the Wild West of grammar-the only rule is that you shouldn’t overuse it. You probably won’t find much more information than that if you google it. The em-dash, also called the long dash or long hyphen, is a form of punctuation writers can use instead of commas, parentheses, colons, and semicolons. The em-dash is the most versatile-and the most abrupt-punctuation mark a writer can use. Use a semicolon if a transitional phrase (however, for example, eventually) joins up your two main clausesĭon't use a semicolon if a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or nor) joins your two main clauses Use a semicolon when one or both of the main clauses also contain commas Use a semicolon to separate two main clauses that each contain a subject and a verb When to Use a SemiColonĪ semicolon is defined as a punctuation mark that has three main uses in writing: For the record, let’s go over the basics of how to use a semicolon. In many uses, a semicolon can often be replaced with a period or a comma. It exists halfway between every other piece of punctuation. ![]() Unlike commas, colons, and periods, the semicolon doesn’t have an intuitive use. Why? Because no one can remember when to use one. If you google “how to use a semicolon,” you will receive about 12 million search results. The semicolon has been called the most feared punctuation mark on earth. This is a sleek, sexy, and definitive mark, but can it replace the semicolon? What Is A SEMICOLON? The em-dash isn’t new-the 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson loved them-but in the last century, it seems to have become the fresh way to avoid all the musty, dusty marks of centuries old. Its only goal is to draw attention to whatever comes behind it in the most dramatic way possible. It can be a comma, a semicolon, or a colon-if you want it to be. There are no hard and fast rules with the em-dash. In the meantime, a contender has risen as an alternative to all intra-sentence punctuation-the em-dash. Vonnegut agreed he claimed that semicolons only exist to "show you've been to college." But, even she understands that "the semicolon is a place where our anxieties and our aspirations about language, class, and education are concentrated so that in this small mark, big ideas are distilled down to a few winking drops of ink."Īccording to Watson, the battle for the semicolon comes down to grammar snobs who'd like the world to adhere to black-and-white rules and lawless populists who don't want to be hemmed in by dusty grammar books that no one reads. Grammarian and self-proclaimed "reformed grammar fetishist," Cecelia Watson has written an entire book about this ungainly love-child of a colon and a comma, aptly called Semicolon. A semicolon looks like the love child of a colon and a comma. If we accept that symmetry is a mark of beauty, the asymmetry of the semicolon makes it Frankenstein's Monster of punctuation. ![]() Writer Donald Barthelme suggests semicolons are "ugly, ugly as a tick on a dog's belly." Why is there so much hatred for one little punctuation mark? It might all come down to aesthetics. ![]()
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