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Writing Chat - Didn't someone mention Em/En Dashes?

Comments

  • Baggy BooksBaggy Books
    It is. Base your style on an established industry standard and keep to it.
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    Whichever you choose stick to it throughout.
    The OUP and the US use the em dash without spacings for interjections-like this-in a sentence (for which it is also possible to use brackets); other UK publishers use the en dash - with a space each side - for the same purpose.
    'However, for interrupted speech, the em dash is still-'
    'Excuse me?'
    '-preferred.'
  • CharliChalkCharliChalk
    Yes, I know about the em/en dash (my pref is en dash), but the em dash without spaces I find really disorientating. When we get subs at the mag (which is a mostly American publication and goes by American punctuation) I honestly cannot tell the difference between a hyphen, an em-dash, or when the author is either getting creative with their stylistic choices, or when they have made an error. It takes a while to work out what's going on when an author is predisposed to using a lot of them. Prob doesn't help that we read stories direct from the database, as oppose to a word processing software. But spaces between dashes would help!

    Anyway, I thought the whole speech marks part of that article very funny.

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