When should a dash be used examples?

To set off material for emphasis. Dashes can be used for emphasis in several ways: A single dash can emphasize material at the beginning or end of a sentence. Example: After eighty years of dreaming, the elderly man realized it was time to finally revisit the land of his youth—Ireland.

What is dash used for in writing?

A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text (not at the bottom: that’s an underscore). It’s longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. Dashes are used to separate groups of words, not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does.

What can you replace a dash with?

Dashes can be replaced by several other punctuations including commas, colons and brackets.

What is the proper use of the dash?

Generally speaking, an em dash is used to create emphasis or to establish an informal tone. An en dash is common when indicating a range of numbers or creating compound adjectives. Once you know that, mastering the dash isn’t hard. Just remember a few basic rules and your writing will be dashing along in no time.

When writing you can effectively use a dash?

When writing, you can most effectively use a dash to break out a thought in the sentence. For example, “They were driving in the storm – which was terrible – to get back to the hospital.”. It grabs the attention of the reader, effectively drawing them back into the story. 5.0.

When to use a dash versus a hyphen?

Use en dash instead of hyphen for dates. English grammar states that an en dash should be used, not hyphens between dates: An em-dash is typically used as a stand-in for a comma or parenthesis to separate out phrases—or even just a word—in a sentence for various reasons (i.e. an appositive).

When to use dashes correctly?

Using Dashes. Dashes, when used sparingly and correctly, can be used to make your writing sound more sophisticated. Indicate sudden changes in tone or thought within a sentence. The exuberant–I should say lunatic–quality of his ravings electrified the crowd.