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Sunday, May 01, 2005
In Vogue?
I love dashes--and more specifically, the Em dash. The definition of an Em dash is as follows: A symbol (-- ) used in writing and printing to indicate a break in thought or sentence structure, to introduce a phrase added for emphasis, definition, or explanation, or to separate two clauses.
The origin of this pithy piece of punctuation is from the printed letter "m", of which it shares the same length. The Em dash has really come into its own in the last few years, and more specifically in the area of the casually written communique known as "email". Now this is where these darlings really shine! No other element in the grammatical schism can do what the Em dash can--it's sassy, off-handed, and flippant. It says "by the way" and "another thing" and "got to run". I throw it out like candy at a parade--I LOVE the Em dash. Now, I am fond of other piece of punctuation and believe that many are essential. I mean, nothing, nothing can trump a well-placed, perfectly poised comma, and there is no stand in for a pregnant, sentence-stopping semi-colon. But I said it once and I will say it again, the Em dash is my favorite and I'm sticking to it. What's yours? posted by: Allison at: 7:14 PM - 
Comments:
Definitely the ellipsis, which is typed as three dots (...)
The ellipsis has many meanings. It can take the place of the much more annoying "etc." If the rest of the story is obvious and/or unimportant, and you'd rather just say "yada yada yada", just type an ellipsis and be done with it. It can also be used for a pause. If you're setting up a joke and need to insert a brief pause into the reading, the ellipsis will serve as your "wait for it" before the punchline. The em dash is a good one too, definitely a close second for me.
As you know, I love my commas; but I also enjoy the semi-colon, which I probably too often use inappropriately! I use the em dash more often than the ellipsis, but I never use an ellipsis when hand-writing something.
Though it seems to be one of those new-fangled-writing-style things, I HATE incomplete sentences! I've tried it - I can't do it! A sentence needs a subject and a verb...Come on, people! Allison, your red pen needs to come over and visit my writing...
Punctuation, glorious punctuation. We PR-types know just how to use 'em and where. Among my favorites...
The period. How much more definitive can you be? Period. The end. It’s over. The em dash. It rocks—connecting, transitioning and separating a specific point from the rest of the sentence. The comma. A properly-placed comma can change the whole meaning of a sentence. But nothing is worse than too many commas, or even too few. Rising in the punctuation world is the bullet. It’s key in simplifying both the written- and spoken-word to just the facts. Note to Allison: I ran across your blog via a comment on another one day. So glad to find you in bloggerville! ;)
After three long months...welcome back to BlogLand! By the way, I am partial to the ellipsis myself...
As someone who is constantly editing/spell checking/proofing for grammer, I too have grown to love the em dash. I've been known to give long-winded explanations and education to my co-workers on the subtleties of use between a slash, dash, hyphen, en dash and em dash. And, I realize we are limited to the HTML text here on your blog, but a double hyphen (--) should NEVER be an acceptable substitute for a proper em dash. Great blog Allison. I look forward to your future - more frequent - blogs.
personally i think punctuation is really overrated and overused think of all the space we would save if they were cut out i mean that could end up to be thousands of trees that wouldnt be cut down because of all the paper that wouldnt be needed the majority of the people i work with dont even use punctuation and they seem happy and fulfilled come tothink of it why even skip spacesbetweenwordsthatcouldsaveevenmorespaceonpaperandthinkofthetimeittakestopunchinthosespacesithinkalsothatpeoplewhousetoomanyofthosthreedotthingsarereallynotawareofthecurrentcrisisofalltherainforestsbeingcutdownjustbecauseofallthepaperweuseandallthepeoplewhousepunctuationespeciallythosethreedotthingsbacktothepeopleiworkwithatschoolwhytheymightnotevenhavetogotoschoolifwecouldcutoutallthispunctuationnonsense
# posted by
 : 8:02 PM
omigosh I love exclamation points! Honestly, when I write a letter I usually have to go back and take out some of the exclamation points! I think I'm generally a happy person and when I'm excited most of my sentences get exclaimed! Great blog Allison!!!
oh and by the way...a teacher told me once (i was in 5th grade) that it's "grammatically incorrect" or whatever to have an even number of exclamtion points at the end of a sentence. Is this true? And well, even if it's not, it's definetly a habbit i've gotten into!!!
Gwen - I don't think it is actually a rule of grammer, however I agree that either 1 or 3 exclamation points looks better than 2 or 4. However, I'm not a big fan of the overuse of exclamation points. We once worked with a copywriter at my job who claimed he got paid by the exclamation point - because he used them A LOT!!!
Allison, you can't imagine how this post warms my little grammarian punctuation-fiend heart. I too have always felt love for the em dash...and brandon, your love song to the ellipses is so good, I'm at a loss and dare not seek to elaborate. The semicolon is also irreplaceable; how else to indicate relativity but not necessarily causality? Oh, how I love thee, punctuation!!!
(Kenny, as a matter of style, I agree with your ruling on exclamation points: 1 or 3 is just nicer looking. According to Strunk & White (who as far as I am concerned are unassailable), there is no rule dictating number, though I suspect both would positively roll at the use of more than one, which is why it is good they do not blog.)
defintely the em dash is my favorite! i probably overuse it and at times use it incorrectly, but i just love using it. it's the perfect pause, by the way, gotta go, see you soon, punctuation. long live the em dash!
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