Punctuation Primer, Part III: The Dashing Dash

Dashes are tricky if for no other reason than people don’t know the proper keystrokes on their keyboards. There are two types of dashes: the en dash and the em dash. They are named for their width; the en dash is the length of an “n,” and the em dash is the length of an “m.” Rather than try to figure out the difference and the keystrokes, many people just use a hyphen in all instances. But hyphens have their own very special uses. Dashes are used in the following ways:

The Em Dash

• The keystrokes for the em dash are as follows:
  • PC: Ctrl>Alt>Num –
  • Mac: Option>Shift>-
• In AP Style, em dashes are always preceded and followed by a space.
• Use a dash or pair of dashes when you abruptly change ideas within a sentence. Em dashes are preferable to parentheses because they lead the reader’s eye to the next part of the sentence, whereas parentheses are jarring to the reader’s eye.
  • The Star Wars saga is the story of Darth Vader — essentially told through the experiences of R2D2 and C-3PO.
  • Anakin Skywalker — once a gifted Jedi Knight — became the evil Sith lord, Darth Vader.
• Use a dash or pair of dashes to set aside a series within a sentence.
  • Sith lord names start with “Darth” — Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, Darth Vader.
  • The planets in Star Wars — Tattoine, Naboo, Kashyyyk, Alderaan, etc. — all have unique names.
• Use an em dash when attributing quotations.
  • “Do or do not. There is no try.” — Yoda

The En Dash

• The keystrokes for the en dash are as follows:
  • PC: Ctrl>Num –
  • Mac: Option>-
• Use an en dash to link periods of time, page numbers, compounds, etc., such as the following:
  • The 1977–2008 overall box-office revenue generated by the Star Wars films was $5.51 billion.
  • The Outer Rim Territories–Tingel Arm region was one of the least explored and settled areas of the Star Wars universe.
  • Episodes I–III mark dynamic change within Anakin Skywalker.