How To Use Dashes And Parentheses

If you want to draw attention to the parenthetical content use dashes.

How to use dashes and parentheses. Dashes parentheses and commas can actually be used interchangeably as a way to mark some of the information in a sentence as not necessary to the main meaning non restrictive information for you grammar wizards. The em dash is about as wide as the letter m while the slightly shorter en dash is about as wide as an n. Dashes and parentheses perform seven basic and related functions in written english. Do not overuse dashes or use them in place of other punctuation. Hyphens are shorter than dashes and are used to connect words.

Recall that en dashes are slightly shorter in length than em dashes. Do not leave space before or after a dash. Using parentheses and dashes properly adds structure to your sentences and helps you avoid the absent minded professor effect. Dashes are considered less formal than parentheses. Em dashes in place of parentheses.

The en dash is often used to indicate spans of time or ranges of numbers. The dash comes in two distinct varieties. Dashes are used as punctuation in sentences. This makes your writing easier to understand and lets you add details. En dashes may look similar to em dashes but they function in a much different way.

They are also more intrusive. The em dash and the en dash. Unlike parentheses the dash is quite popular in news writing in all types of writing really. Find out more in a bitesize ks2 english guide. If you want to include the parenthetical content more subtly use parentheses.

You use them to surround something that seems a bit out of place in the sentence an aside a clarification or a. Using the en dash to indicate spans of time or ranges of numbers. Use parentheses to enclose supplemental material including in text citations minor digressions and afterthoughts. A pair of em dashes can replace a pair of parentheses. Separate appositives introduce emphasizations enclose clarifications enclose asides and additional information introduce explanations introduce an explanation of a preceding series and enclose numbers or letters in a list.