Dashing difficult

It’s been a while since I felt compelled to write a blog post related to punctuation but something that has been cropping up in many of my editing jobs lately has driven me to put fingers to keys once more.

I’d like to talk about dashes and try to explain that they are not all created equally nor are they interchangeable. There are two types of dash: the em dash (—) and the en dash (–). Believe it or not fierce debates have been conducted over millennia (ok, maybe not that long but I need to build drama) about which is superior and where each belongs!

Of course, the hyphen is a form of dash too (‐) and to complicate matters even more, the minus sign (−) can accidentally get thrown into the mix sometimes as well.

So, let’s break down the world of the pesky little lines that can add a lot to your writing – or make it look like a hot mess.

I’ll start with Australian convention because that’s where I live and do most of my editing work but, as with all things language related, the ‘rules’ can differ in other countries.

Reasons for using em dashes, as cited in a book that many people working in the writing world in Australia – who care about good grammar and following the rules of punctuation – have turned to often, called The Style Manual for authors, editors and printers, were listed as:

·        signifying an abrupt change (eg. The main problem was bad cooking – but we didn’t want to appear rude.)

·        introducing an amplification or explanation (eg. The effects can be wide spread – for example clearing vegetation in one area can result in dryland salinity hundreds of kilometres away), or

·        to set apart parenthetic elements (that is use in place of brackets such as in this example, Professor Johns–on his trips to Victoria–found no evidence of hostility).

This printed go-to guide, however, was superseded by a digital guide in 2022. In 2023 it became a free resource for all.

Controversially, when this first digital update came the em dash/rule (unspaced—) that was beloved by many, including this editor, got the boot and was replaced by a spaced ( – ) en dash/rule.

Now the digital Style Guide tells us that;

“Dashes show a relationship. En dashes for spans or ranges are less accessible for users than a phrase. Use spaced en dashes to set off non-essential information in sentences. Spaced en dashes create a pause in a sentence to add extra meaning, similar to commas and brackets…Use them rarely to use them effectively – for example, to draw attention to a new and important detail for your main idea.”

However, The Australian Editing Handbook by Flann, Hill and Wang didn’t give a clear winner for which dash was ‘best’ but rather stated that consistency was key:

“When a closed or spaced em or en rule is used, it is accompanied on either side by a fixed space (often a thin space).”

A reminder was also given for ensuring that the text dash and the hyphen were not confused or used at the start of any line.

Ok, so that’s the current Australian ‘rule’ but what does that mean when you’re writing and want to get it right? I decided to consult some recently published works of fiction and non-fiction to see how authors, editors and publishers were taking to the changes (or not). This random selection comes from books I had close to hand at the time of writing:

How to Age Against the Machine by Melissa Doyle and Naima Brown. Published by Hardie Grant Books in 2023.
“To set the scene, here are two imperfect metaphors. One: we can think of our brains as the hardware – the operating system we must work within – and our feelings and emotions as the software, or the changeable stuff we can influence.”
(They’ve chosen to use the spaced en dash).

Our Voices From the Heart by Professor Megan Davis and Patricia Anderson, AO. Published by Harper Collins in 2023.
“We asked for a new process—Dialogue—and this became the Referendum Council. The Council included us, the authors of this book—Professor Megan Davis and Pat Anderson—as well as Noel Pearson, Dalassa Yorkston, Tanya Hosch, and initially Pat Dodson and Stan Grant, to name a few.”
(Here unspaced em dashes are used).

The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams. Published by Affirm Press in 2023.
“He let the sheets fall back into a neat pile. ‘I wouldn’t know where to begin with the folding – the pages are all out of order.’”
(Spaced en dashes are the choice made here).

We Didn’t Think It Through by Gary Lonesborough. Published by Allen and Unwin in 2023.
“In my head, I remind myself that he’s my friend – he’s part of my group and he’s not someone I should backhand.”
(Spaced en dashes appear to be used in all recent A&U middle grade and young adult fiction – 5/5 of the ones I had on my shelf confirmed this).

So, it seems we’d be safe to use spaced en dashes when writing in Australia for Australian audiences but, of course, once we move to international waters things get murky.

The guidelines prepared by the British Chartered Institute for Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) for use of dashes remind us:

“Three types of dash are commonly used in text:

• hyphen ( - the shortest),

• en rule ( – usually twice as long as a hyphen) and

• em rule ( — twice as long as an en rule).

All of them have more than one use in English-language publishing, and their usage varies according to the type of publisher or the audience, and the conventions used in the territory where the text is published.”

That explanation doesn’t offer much guidance but thankfully CIEP’s Punctuation for Editors Guide does provide many sound examples of when and where to use the hyphen and dash.

“A hyphen can be used to link all sorts of words and even whole phrases: Ten-year-old Rani enjoys helping in a family-run garden centre started by her get-up-and-go great-grandfather.”

It goes on to say:

“British styles typically use spaced en rules as parenthetical dashes, though Oxford University Press and some others use unspaced em rules…Used in pairs, parenthetical dashes mark an aside; used singly before the last part of the sentence, they mark an afterthought, punchline or conclusion. Dashes catch the eye – especially spaced en rules – and so create a larger break than commas.”

So the Brits are (mostly) using dashes in the same way as Aussies but it looks like Americans may really play around with things!

ACES: The (American) Society for Editors’ Style Guide tells us to: “Use spaces around em dashes.”

This means you would write your sentence to look like this — that’s a lot of space between the two ideas!

However, I’m not sure American publishers have received this memo as the four random books I pulled off my shelf that were published in America all used unspaced em dashes. These ranged from the Pulitzer Prize winning The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power (published by Harper Collins), The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd (published by Penguin Random House), You by Caroline Kepnes (published by Simon & Schuster) and Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (published by St Martin’s Press/Macmillan).

The Canadians, when writing in English, recommend the use of spaced em dashes — in legal writing but non-spaced em dashes—in academic writing.

Their style guide, TERMIUM Plus® The Government of Canada’s terminology and linguistic data bank, suggests that while “Similar in appearance yet disparate in function, hyphens, em dashes and en dashes are essential marks in workplace writing. Follow…a reliable style guide, and you’ll have little trouble keeping them straight.”

I think I tend to agree, though I’m still searching for direction on how publishers in Canada advise authors to employ their dashes!

Hopefully though you now have a slightly clearer (albeit lengthy) idea of what dash to use and when in your own writing.