So who uses the em dash?

[PennLady]

I do, and I hope not too often. Here's an article at Slate that calls for an end to them.

http://www.slate.com/id/2295413/

 

[3113]

Use 'em all the time In fact, I recently had an editor get on my case for using a lot of them in a recent story, but in my defense, the character keeps getting interrupted and the dashes were meant to show that. So the character would say, "Listen to me, I'm--" And the other character would say, "I know, I know what you're going to say."

It was important to the story that she keep getting interrupted, so there were a lot of those dashes, perhaps too many, but I felt that most if not all were justified. That's not always true of my use of them. I do like 'em a bit too much, I admit.

 

[sr71plt]

I use them a lot. The article seems to suggest that sometimes a colon is more proper, and my experience is that it's the colon, not the em dash, that's on its way out.

 

[3113]

I use them a lot. The article seems to suggest that sometimes a colon is more proper, and my experience is that it's the colon, not the em dash that's on its way out.

I like colons! It's the semi-colon that ought to be tossed out. They're a period, but they're not! They're a comma, but they're not! Too ambiguous.

 

[Verdad]

I knew there’d be a photo of Emily Dickinson before I clicked.

I like the em dash but I hope not too much. I don’t know where the author got the idea there’s an epidemic of em dashes, though. I haven’t noticed it, although I have heard that some e-publishers don’t want any semicolons and insist on their being replaced with em dashes. If true, it still wouldn’t make for a wildly excessive usage.

 

[stephen55]

I like colons! It's the semi-colon that ought to be tossed out. They're a period, but they're not! They're a comma, but they're not! Too ambiguous.

Semi-colons should never be tossed out. Coming between the small colon and the large colon, they provide a bit of redundancy just in case you lose parts of the other ones.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Me, I use em dashes-- all the time. ALL the time! And colons and semicolons as well. Life is not periods and exclamation points alone.

 

[sr71plt]

Me, I use em dashes-- all the time. ALL the time! And colons and semicolons as well. Life is not periods and exclamation points alone.

It's exclamation points I've been told never to use!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Me, too! I got told to only use an exclamation point when the character is shouting. As for em dashes--y'gotta love 'em. And semicolons, colons, italics and all the other wonderful bouquet of punctuation. Hell, we've got them; why not use them?

That author is Slate is trying to dry out written English to make it look like a legal brief. Fuck'im!

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Semi-colons should never be tossed out. Coming between the small colon and the large colon, they provide a bit of redundancy just in case you lose parts of the other ones.

yes, they're essential when trying to recover from a colonectomy. Let's avoid having a semi-colonectomy at all costs, even under socialised medicine!

 

[PennLady]

This follows on the heels of an article, also on Slate, about eliminating double spaces at the end of sentences. I do that anyway, as I worked for a newsletter publisher and that's how they did it, to save on paper and printing costs.

I've only worked with one e-publisher, but I find it odd that a publisher would want to eliminate a punctuation mark. I mean, everything in moderation -- right?

I used to go a bit comma happy, but my editors have gotten me out of that habit. Everyone has something like that, I'm sure. I think it's silly to want to get rid of semi-colons, colons, etc. They all serve a purpose. And what about just allowing for individual style?

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I have a history-based lab exercise for my students that makes use of the Domesday Book (no rapture, there, though, I'm afraid). There are plenty of abbreviations, but it is before the dawn of punctuation. The Medieval Latin is beyond most of them, but the English translation I give them isn't punctuated. They have to figure it out from the context, and that's had some interesting effects.

Punctuation has been very useful in writing, but I don't think it should be entirely subject to some sort of academic regulation. e.e.cummings did some insightful things by being creative with it -- let's emulate te poet, and keep our written language lively and alive.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

If you're a semicolon lover:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

Yes, I've considered buying the poster.

 

[Xelebes]

The em-dash (―) is easy for me to type, so I use them just like I use the ellipsis and the semi-colon.

 

[PennLady]

The em-dash (―) is easy for me to type, so I use them just like I use the ellipsis and the semi-colon.

I use the em-dash to indicate an abrupt break off in speech, and an ellipsis to indicate more that someone has trailed off or lost their train of thought.

 

[Xelebes]

I use the em-dash to indicate an abrupt break off in speech, and an ellipsis to indicate more that someone has trailed off or lost their train of thought.

Oh I know. I was just saying I use them the same on a frequentive basis.

 

[bashfullyshameless]

I like the em dash -- it's less pretentious and snooty than the semicolon -- and so I use it quite frequently.

Slate can bite me.

 

[PennLady]

Oh I know. I was just saying I use them the same on a frequentive basis.

I was trying to think whether I use the in expository stuff but I think it's mostly dialogue, or internal dialogue.

 

[TE999]

I much prefer the ellipsis to the em-dash...it seems less formal.

 

[jomar]

http://loyalkng.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/captain-kirk-wtf-to-much-lsd.jpg

 

[TE999]

http://loyalkng.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/captain-kirk-wtf-to-much-lsd.jpg

I didn't know Captain Kirk was a Mohel...I bet Lurch back there is really pissed.

 

[xssve]

I use dashes constantly; I have a phobia about using more than one colon or semi colon per sentence: and, I have, in the past, been accused of comma abuse.

Writing is easy for me, it's all stream of consciousness - re-writing is hell, mostly consisting of breaking up one long sentence into about five shorter ones, then getting rid of Three of those.

 

[Xelebes]

I was trying to think whether I use the in expository stuff but I think it's mostly dialogue, or internal dialogue.

There are moments when a need ― most certainly a need ― arises that calls for the use of the em dash.

 

[sr71plt]

Might note that publishing em dashes don't have spaces around them.

 

[estragon]

I think of semi-colons as yield signs, and periods (full stops) as stop signs. I take issue with the idea that semi-colons are only appropriate to join two complete sentences. The rule is too dogmatic; all very well for academic or expository writing, but for narrative story-telling, writing should mimic speech as nearly as possible. And if I don't always follow Strunk & White (although as a Cornell alum I should), well then, so be it.

As for em-dashes, I agree they should be used when one speaker interrupts another, or for a similar rapid break in narration. The Slate article was a spoof of their excessive use. There are so many writers whose prose is so breathless, almost entirely stream-of-consciousness, that reading becomes a chore.

The whole function of punctuation is to let the reader catch up to the writer, to signal a change in POV, to emphasize, to make plain what the writer intends.

There remain these three--Faith, Hope and Clarity. And the greatest of these is Clarity.