Grammar Bytes: Punctuation

Gower, as cited by Davidson, refers to the dash as "seductive" (Davidson, George. How to Punctuate. London: Penguin Bks., 155.) First, you need to understand the difference between the dash and the hyphen. A hyphen is the length of one key stroke. For example, the word half-life.

A dash, on the other hand, is the length of two hyphens or keystrokes like this: "The ceremony this year in New York to mark the anniversary of 9/11 -- a ceremony that was held for the first time in the impressive newly-dedicated memorial -- went on over many hours. Note that the information inside the brackets, parenthetical modifiers, explain or add new information to the already existing sentence. (Some computer programmes turn two dashes into the long dash automatically.)

Frequently, the reason for the use of the dash is because the sentence already contains internal punctuation. See this example from The Ready Reference Handbook: "These days the volume of business communications -- from customers and suppliers, from supervisors, colleagues and staff -- has mushroomed" (Dodds & Jewinski, 277). The dash here allows the reader to sort the details of the sentence out easily. However, the dash should not -- as is frequently the case in student reports, assignments and exams -- be used when the comma is the more obvious choice.

A dash is used first and foremost for emphasis. For example: "To keep my dog Scout quiet, I must use consistency and discipline -- discipline each and every day."

The second use of the dash, as noted above is to set off parenthetical material. Do this when you find the use of more commas is confusing as noted earlier in the blog.

The third use of the dash, noted in this posting, is to display lists. Please note that a colon is the more formal way of introducing a list. This makes a colon the usual choice in an academic paper. Example: "Our basement is packed with numerous items from our last six moves -- books that could not find a home upstairs, chairs and desks that are too large for our home, more kitchen equipment than our present house can't accommodate and bits and bobs that have never been sorted from one move to the next."

A fourth use of the dash is to show faltering speech, incomplete sentences or a narrative insertion. Examples:
"I can't do it --- I really can't do it -- please, don't make me," he stuttered.
(faltering speech)

"Please stop --."
"I say --."
(Incomplete sentences that are cut off by further action in the dialogue.)

"Sir" -- he raised his hands to his watering eyes -- "Surely, you can find it in your heart to be merciful."
(Narrative insertion)

Dashes need to be used with caution in academic work. Don't, as stated earlier, use them to substitute for commas. Happy writing.

KB

References

Davidson, George. How to Punctuate. London: Penguin Books, 2005.

Dodds, Jack and Judi Jewinski. The Ready Reference Book: Canadian Edition. Toronto: Prentice Hall, 1998.