#EM DASH EXAMPLES HOW TO#
#EM DASH EXAMPLES FULL#

The host announced to the crowd: “Dinner is served!”.

My father always told me: “You must always be kind.

The headline read: “Our New President.”.

To Present A QuoteĬolons are used to present a quotation or a direct speech, especially if they contain two or more sentences.

#EM DASH EXAMPLES FULL#

However, as illustrated by example (b), if the colon is followed by full sentences, the first letter of the first word must be capitalized per sentence. Tip: As a general rule, words that follow a colon should be in sentence caps unless the word is a proper noun that needs to be capitalized. Keep the noise at a minimum after 9:00 PM.ĭo not use a colon to start a list that follows a verb a sentence like this will work without a colon.The applicant specializes in three things: writing, marketing, and public relations.You can apply it both when the list is directly connected to the sentence or if items are listed individually in bullet points with one line each. The colon is perhaps most used to introduce a list. The woman realized that she finally achieved what she had been waiting for all of her life: contentment.Mark found out that he only needed two things to lose weight: exercise and a good diet.You can use a colon to emphasize a word or phrase at the end of the sentence. But in English writing, the colon mainly works as emphasis, introducing a list, presenting a quote, or connecting two closely related independent clauses. We see it in the expression of time and ratios, as well as in business-related e-mails. The colon (:) is a familiar punctuation mark since it is used in several non-grammatical ways.

#EM DASH EXAMPLES HOW TO#

Here, we will talk about the colon (:), semicolon ( ), and the em-dash (-), and how to use them in your writing. But once you have a good grasp on how to use them, you can begin to explore more punctuation marks.

It is important to be familiar with these four. The basic-and most used-punctuation marks are the period (.), comma (,), question mark (?), and exclamation mark (!). It connects ideas properly, paces one’s thoughts, and adds emphasis to writing. Image source: Francesco Gallarottie/Stocksnap.Punctuation marks are key to writing sensible work. Overall, dashes-especially en and em dashes-are useful tools writers should master.

These are used in bibliographies when the author's name is repeated. The 2 em dash can be used to indicate missing letters in a word, either because material is missing or illegible, or to conceal a name. and the minus sign on the numbers pad or.Unknown values in a tableĪn em dash can be used in place of an unknown value in a table.Ĭreating an em dash can be done by either: 'No! Get over here right now,' his mother shouted. 'Mary, How could-Why would you do such a thing?' When I was driving, well, asleep at the wheel, we got into an accident. The em dash in this example could be substituted with parentheses, but not a comma because commas cannot be used to set off parenthetical expressions when there is internal punctuation ( commas inside the expressions), as can be seen in the following example. When I was driving-well, asleep at the wheel-I got into an accident. This punctuation mark is used primarily in informal writing in place of a comma, colon, semicolon, or parentheses to provide emphasis. It gets its name-no big surprise here-because it's the width of an M. The em dash (- or - ) is the most commonly used type of dash and is often simply referred to as a dash. For example,Ĭreating an en dash can be done by either: The en dash can be used when joining compound modifiers where at least one of the words is an open compound (meaning not hyphenated) or is already hyphenated. The temperature is between 32 and 45☏.It should also not be used when the number or word is preceded by from or between (from…to, or between…and). Note that an en dash should not be used for negative numbers, and that there should be no spaces before or after it. It is generally used in place of 'to' for connecting numbers in ranges, although it can also connect words (in which case, it means 'through'). The en dash (–) gets its name because it's the same width as the letter N. Let's take a look at the different types of dashes and when to use these little punctuation marks. Figuring out whether to use an en dash, em dash, 2 em dashes, or even (gasp!) 3 em dashes can be confusing. If you're confused about the various types of dashes and when to use them, you're not alone.

Em dash examples