Re: CHAT: Dashes

John Cowan wrote:
>
> Robert Hailman wrote:
>
> > I tend not to use parentheses, but sometimes I do. I do use hyphens a
> > lot, where parentheses or commas would be expected - "So I was talking
> > to Fred the other day - you met him at that party a week ago - and he
> > said..." but more formal than that.
>
> Perfectly fine, but use them two at a time to form a dash.
> You can make up your own mind about whether to use spaces around the
> dash or not.
Well, Microsoft Word makes single dashes surrounded by spaces into em
dashes, which are about the length of two dashes. I like them with
spaces.

> > I've never seen a style guide
> > address that use, even to warn against it, and I've never been told
> > using them was bad style.
>
> Dashes should be used in pairs -- this is the way you do it -- to
> emphasize the part being set off.  An unpaired dash indicates a radical
> change of direction for the sentence -- like this.
>
> "Dashes emphasize, parentheses reduce, commas merely enclose."
Ah. Thanks, that's pretty much how I use them.

--
Robert