THE DASH
527. The dash is a much abused punctuation mark. A great many writers who are not familiar with the rules of punctuation use a dash whenever they feel the need of some sort of a punctuation mark. Their rule seems to be, "whenever you pause make a dash." Punctuation marks indicate pauses but a dash should not be used upon every occasion. The dash should not be used as a substitute for the comma, semi-colon, colon, etc. In reality, the dash should be used only when these marks cannot be correctly used.
528. The chief use of the dash is to indicate a sudden break in the thought or a sudden change in the construction of the sentence. For example:
- In the next place—but I cannot discuss the matter further under the circumstances.
529. The dash is frequently used to set a parenthetical expression off from the rest of the sentence when it has not as close connection with the sentence as would be indicated by commas. As for example:
- The contention may be true—although I do not believe it—that this sort of training is necessary.
530. The dash is also used in place of commas to denote a longer or more expressive pause. For example:
- The man sank—then rose—then sank again.
531. The dash is often used after an enumeration of several items as a summing up. For example:
- Production, distribution, consumption—all are a part of economics.
532. A dash is often used when a word or phrase is repeated for emphasis. For example:
- Is there universal education—education for every child beneath the flag? It is not for the masses of the children—not for the children of the masses.
533. If the parenthetical statements within dashes require punctuation marks, this mark should be placed before the second dash. For example:
- War for defense—and was there ever a war that was not for defense?—was permitted by the International.
- This sight—what a wonderful sight it was!—greeted our eyes with the dawn.
534. The dash is also used to indicate the omission of a word, especially such words as as, namely, viz., etc. For example:
- Society is divided into two classes—the exploited and the exploiting classes.
535. After a quotation, use the dash before the name of the author. For example:
- Life only avails, not the having lived.—Emerson.
536. The dash is used to mark the omission of letters or figures. For example:
- It happened in the city of M—.
- It was in the year 18—.