Bashing the Dashes
overused, misused, and abused

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.  
     —Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 - 1900)

Which got me thinking about 'modern' punctuation in long, run-on sentences. What are your thoughts on the use of hyphens to break up thoughts in a long sentence of loosely related ideas? You know, the type of paragraphs we speak rather than write. I mean - how many of us actually speak in good, perfectly punctuated and constructed sentences and neatly organised paragraphs?

Hyphens where one should normally use commas or periods, semi-colons, or colons - or reorder thoughts - are a big part of my first drafts and I wonder how many of them I should be removing.    —Anne Marie Pernier

Interested in this topic?
Follow the Participation image and share your thoughts with us.

From Sarah S
I am not an author, and do not play one on tv, though I do review books. I have found that I do not mind dashes, but they can be over used.

The different tact I have taken with punctuation and the "tone" of books in general, is that "times they are a changin'". I am not the most technologically advanced person in the world, but I know our youth live on their phones, text messages and IMs. Short cuts are being taken left and right and I wonder if grammar as we know it will still be applicable in 5, 10 or 20 years.

BTW, FYI, FWIW, gr8, are but a few ways of communicating that are not going to go away. People are writing more like they are speaking. Does it make it right? Not necessarily, but it is happening.

So, as an extension of that discussion, I think the dash - is becoming more popular and accepted in writing. There will always be purists and pop fiction writers. Not sure the purists will buy into this argument, but pop culturists already have.

From John Brese
I do believe that I am in consensus with most of those in this discussion in that some writers do often overuse the "dash". I try not to use it unless in between a combination of two words, or to emphasize an interruption in thought or speech. My big problem though is commas. It tend to feel that I use those punctuation marks way too often, but I'm trying to whittle those down as well.

From Louise Bohmer
When using the dash, I try to follow the 'Elements of Style' rule: Use for abrupt breaks or a long appositve summary. I use a great deal more dashes in my rough drafts then weed them out in subsequent drafts. I also shy away from the summary dash, and tend to use them for the abrupt breaks only where I think the sentence really needs such an impact of punctuation. If a simple comma will do, I stick to it and don't 'play' around too much.

From Elliot Mabeuse
I was always taught that the em dash has a specific use it signals a discontinuity in a train of thought, as in, "It was raining--it always rained on mondays--and he knew he'd get wet." Since it signals an interruption, the em dash is also used to indicate one character's speech being interrupted by another's

"But you said--"

"Never mind what I said."

The em dash differs from the eliipsis in that the latter indicates an uncertain trailing-off of speech; the dash indicates a break.

I've found that editors are more comfortable with an em dash then they are with a colon or semicolon, even though the double-dot boys are more grammatically correct. I find myself using more dashes now than I used to, just in self-defense. I wince every time I do, though.

From Lon Grover
Run on sentences marked by dashes may replicate our speech patterns, but they give me, at least, a problem as a reader. Spoken text (if you will) includes expressive hints that written text cannot provide. We pause for infinitely varying lengths of time that a small number of codes (comma, hyphen, dash, ellipses, ...) cannot match.

Until the end of a sentence, I have to keep all the ideas in it in mind. That's hard work, and I've stopped reading more than one story that wanted me to do it. Very few successful authors write dialog that tries to mimic real speaeh, probably for reasons like mine. Relatively formal writing may not replicate real speech patterns, but it makes life easier for readers. There are few enough of them without chasing some away.

From Amanda Earl
It's not the hyphen that is used to break thought, but rather the em dash which is typed as -- on the keyboard. (Some programs such as Microsoft Word convert these double hyphens into em dashes.) The Chicago Manual of Style has an excellent description of the many uses of the em dash.

Glimpsing in my various grammar books, I have discovered that most grammarians consider the em dash to be overused, often in place of a colon (summary, example, etc).

"Properly used, the dash adds variety and lightness to writing; improperly used or overused, it gives the impression that the writer is flighty or disorganized." (Handbook for Writers, Celia Millward and Jane Flick)

"Caution Use the dash carefully in formal writing. Do not use dashes as awkward substitutions for commas, semicolons or end marks." (Harbrace College Handbook (John C. Hodges et al.).

I try not to use the dash much in my own writing because I find it unwieldy and odd-looking. Not to mention that I am not really sure as to how to use it properly. I find the advice in grammar books on the subject of the dash to be confusing and conflicting. One book said not to use it as an introductory element while another recommended its use for introductory elements. Just too darned confusing for me.

As a reader and editor, I find the dash to be overused. In my opinion, if you proof your draft and discover that you have em dashes in every paragraph, you are definitely using too many. If you have a deliberate reason for its use, then more power to you.

In another discussion, Ishmael, I think it was, pointed out that characters do not necessarily speak in grammatical sentences. I think if you have a character who is, as Millward and Flick say above "flighty or disorganized," he might need lots of em dashes, but I think you have to balance this potential overuse of the em dash with the need for clear and comprehensible texts.

Now...my problem is ellipsis points...as you can see...I use too many...

From Jolie du Pre
I like hyphens, but I tend to use more hyphens when I'm posting to Writers than I would in a story I intend to send to an editor. If people want to complain about the way I write at Writers, that's fine. It's not fine if an editor complains about the way I write a story. So I'm very careful there.

But if you're a good writer you can get away with breaking some of the rules. For example, it is not correct to use sentence fragments, but some writers use them for effect.

From Chris Skilbeck
If you want any help or reassurance about when to choose dashes over the other two methods of parenthesis - that is, commas and brackets (commonly called parentheses) - get a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.

One thing to remember about dashes in formal writing (you young people will use them willy-nilly in the informal media, I know) is this if there's only one it's probably an ignorant substitution for a perfectly good punctuation mark that you could learn about if you took the trouble.

From Ann Regentin
A dash is never a substitute for anything. It's a perfectly good punctuation mark, even when there is only one of them.

From Chris Skilbeck
Ann - of course the single dash is a perfectly good punctuation mark; it is used correctly and to great effect by writers including Jane Austen, Lord Byron and many ERWA members.

It is also the case, however, that a single dash is very often misused where a comma or colon or even a full stop would be more appropriate, or as a masking device in a sentence that no punctuation could render correct.

The dash can often be found as a sort of written equivalent of the 'you know' and 'ah' and 'um' and 'like' of informal spoken language, and in that sort of usage is as pointless and irritating as are those, except of course in the written dialogue of those who speak like that.

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