In this video, we talk about a powerful but often overlooked punctuation mark: the em-dash!
I outline multiple ways to use this mark in dialogue and explain how each of them impacts the way the sentence reads. I also provide some alternatives if you’re looking for a different effect.
With em-dashes at your disposal, you have one more tool at your disposal to write evocative, effective prose!
Hello, Jane Cleland here to talk to you about an em-dash. An em-dash, which gets its name from old typesetting when the longer hyphen was actually the width of the letter M. Thus it’s an em-dash, spelled “e-m.”
You use an em-dash in two ways, and I’ll tell you what they are in a minute. But first, let’s talk about how to create it. You end a word hyphen, hyphen, no space. The new word, again, no space. When you hit the space bar after the final word, you’ll see the two hyphens connect and elongate. That’s an em-dash.
So use an em-dash in two ways. One is part of a pair to indicate a shout, and the other is to show an abrupt change within a sentence. For example, I’m gonna contrast an em-dash with commas in a pair and parentheses—parentheses before and after—and then you’ll hear the shout.
Let’s say there’s something special about the fact that Abigail made the travel arrangements. And what’s special about it is she’s the president of the company. She normally supervises things. She doesn’t actually make the travel arrangements. So I’m highlighting that she is the president and I’m going to do it with a comma before and after, by putting the presidency in parentheses, and with em-dashes:
Abigail, the president, made the travel arrangements.
Abigail (the president) made travel arrangements.
Abigail—the president—made the travel arrangements.
So, in other words, in this usage, it’s up to you. It depends on the intention of the author.
The other way you use an em-dash is to show an abrupt shift in perspective or attention. Something has happened that, “Woo!,” you just wanna “Woo!,” But it’s all part of the same thought or person talking, something of that nature. So for example, it could be, “Abigail made the travel arrangements—can you believe it?” Did you hear the em-dash there? I’m highlighting that there’s something extraordinary about it, and now we know that, of course, that it’s, she’s the president.
Don’t use too many of them. I went em-dash happy in a book, and it was pretty tough revision to go back and edit out nearly 200 em-dashes. Yeah, my editor and I got a good chuckle out of that one. So use it with discretion. It represents a shout. It’s a powerful punctuation mark. I know you can do it.
One more thing about an em-dash: When you are writing dialogue and you wanna abruptly break off—maybe someone interrupted, maybe the doorbell rang. But the way you do that is with an em-dash. So the last word the person speaks, then the two hyphens. Then you’re gonna have to put a letter there and hits the space bar so that it becomes an em-dash. Then you delete that extra letter, put your closed quote marks, and you’re done.
*Transcripts are software-generated. To report any transcription errors, please use my contact form!
