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Re: Using M-dash and N-dash

Subject: Re: Using M-dash and N-dash
From: dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 12:47:36 -0800

...In the past 15 years or so, the only place I
ever hear people talking about em dashes are in forums like
this one; the rest of the English-writing world appears to
have pretty much forgotten it.

Argh! People who read pretty much anything besides computer documentation probably recognize and correctly interpret a properly used em dash, even if they couldn't articulate the various circumstances that call for its use. is appropriate.

Among the many circumstances cited by the Chicago Manual of Style:
* sudden breaks or abrupt changes of speech
* interruptions of one person's speech by another
* amplifications, explanations, and summary expressions
* digressions and other "parenthetical" expressions

Just because *you* have forgotten the em dash doesn't mean everyone else has, too.

--David

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References:
RE: Re: Using M-dash and N-dash: From: Gene Kim-Eng

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