Dash Your Brains Out

DASHES LOOK LIKE THISà --   THEY DO NOT LOOK LIKE THISà -  A dash is made by typing two consecutive hyphens; word-processing programs will often fuse the hyphens into a single line like thisà —

Dashes have a variety of uses, all of which are to place emphasis in some way or another.  Often the dash functions like a poor man’s colon—it is less formal and creates less of a break in a sentence.  The two main ways of using dashes are using a single dash and a using a pair of dashes.

1.  A pair of dashes can be used around a non-essential clause in two ways:

a.  to emphasize an interruption within a complete sentence.  I must—I absolutely must—do my homework before I go to Loso’s Main Street Pub.

b.  to set off an appositive series that contains commas.  There are many young female pop singers—Mandy Moore, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson—but Britney Spears reigns supreme over them all.

2.  A single dash can be used to emphasize a word or group of words at the end of a sentence, usually in one of these three ways:

 

a.  to summarize. 

And then I regained consciousness—it had all been a flashback!

 

b.  to lead into a final series. 

The movie The Big Lebowski is a cinematic masterpiece—hilariously written, creatively filmed, and brilliantly acted.

 

c.  to lead into an elaboration. 

I’m glad I chose Saint John’s University—the faculty is excellent, the classes are small, and the campus is beautiful.

*Note that the clauses appearing after a dash or in between a set of dashes do not change the meaning of a sentence—they only give additional information.