Dashes
- Dashes for refinement of an idea:
The period means stop - for a moment.
"Most writing classes or courses in school and college focus on expository writing - giving information, explaining.
"It can be these things, but first of all - and in the end, too - it is an art...
- The dash almost always introduces a short phrase. Rare (but not uncommon) to see someone successfully tack a long phrase on with it - unless of course, that's their thing. One structure with dashes and long-phrases is a list, followed by a declaration.
Teachers who do this, journalists who do that, novelists who do this - they've all helped perpetuate the idea that...
- One particularly tricky dash usage is a dash followed by an and or but. Tricky since it's tough to know when you want it. I think the basic rule here is: use it to emphasize or contrast an already complete phrase, or to uniquely delineate one or more items in a list or sequence of events.
The length of a sentence in good prose is established by contrast and interplay with the sentences around it - and by why it says and does.
I myself am plagued by "kind of", "sort of", and "just" - and always, always, "very".
In this passage listen to the variety of sentence length, the complexity of the syntax, including the use of parentheses, and the rhythm thus obtained, which flows and breaks, pauses, flows again - and then, in a one word sentence, stops.
- A good litmus test for when to use the dash is whether it's replacing a complex comma. Simple commas should not be replaced with a dash.
Bad dash:
"I rolled out of bed, then went to wash my face"
"I rolled out of bed - then went to wash my face"
Good dash:
"There was no sun in the room, yet things seemed bright, sparkly, almost translucent."
"There was no sun in the room, yet things seemed bright, sparkly - almost translucent."