Writing that sounds like speaking

Last night I went through all my blog posts and replaced hyphens—which are the default dash in so many applications—with my beloved em-dash. The hyphens have been tormenting me since I started writing blogthecat entries, but I wasn’t sure how to change them. A quick hunt for HTML codes yesterday ended my misery, and I can’t tell you how merry—delirious, even—I was as I pasted the long, elegant line over each ill-placed and unsatisfying hyphen.

The em-dash is one of my favourite punctuation marks. I try not to be its slave, since it can certainly be overused, and anything overused is ugly and distracting. Employed sparingly, however, and to proper effect, it can dramatically punch up a piece of writing. It can also add to the sense that the author is speaking her writing right to you. I think there are two reasons for this:

1. Em-dashes can be used to begin and end an interruption or aside in a sentence. Consequently, em-dash-fragmented sentences mirror how most of us actually think. We don’t think in one pure burst of linear thought most of the time. We make room for the odd tangent or revelation brought on by a previous thought. Consider the following along these lines:

“He refused to tell anyone—least of all his wife—about that embarrassing moment during the medical exam.”

Without that em-dashed clarification, the sentence would be less interesting. Even if the clarification were kept, but surrounded with commas instead of em-dashes (as it certainly could be), it would lose power:

“He refused to tell anyone, least of all his wife, about that embarrassing moment during the medical exam.”

2. The ineffectiveness of the comma substitution above attests to the second way the em-dash makes writing feel like it's being spoken: via its visual impact. It provides a nice, long break between thoughts, so the reader’s eye can have a little rest to get ready for the next piece of information. It provides rhythm, and an uneven one at that. Who among us speaks in perfectly spaced-out verbal bursts? When you listen to someone speak, often it’s their pauses, their hesitation, their lingering, etc., as much as what they’re actually saying that’s so compelling. The em-dash may be the best punctuation mark at approximating this unpredictability.

Of course, it’s hard to get away from conventional wisdom that we should always consider other marks (the comma, the semi-colon, and the period—for different reasons) before using the em-dash. I keep this in mind, and I do change the odd em-dash into another mark. But not often. And with a sigh.

Comments

[Travis]

No love for the tiny en-dash? 19722007?

[kiley]

Oh Travis, don't get me GOING! (But thanks—I have SERIOUS opinions on the en-dash). The en-dash is best used to connect numbers (where it most commonly means up to and including, or through). For example, "My college years, 1997–2000, were tough but worth it." Note that if "from" starts the construction, "to" should be used instead of the en-dash for parallel construction, and if "between" starts the construction, "and" should replace the en-dash. (Chicago Manual of Style).

In terms of connecting words, the en-dash is best in cases like this: "The Vancouver–Calgary flight leaves soon." I know it's increasingly used in place of the em-dash for interruptions or parenthetical information, usually surrounded by a space on either side (e.g., "His ego – which had grown ever-more inflated since his promotion – was now unbearable"). But I don't like it. I'll use it when forced (e.g., a client preference), but I miss the length of the em-dash, and I find the spaces on either side of the en-dash break my train of thought.

Aren't you glad you asked?

[kiley]

Every single one of my en-dashes turned out as a hyphen in my last comment! And I pasted them directly from Word. Aaagh! Why, Travis, why? I need to work today. I can't be tormented yet again.

[Travis]

¿I don't know?

¡Sorry!

TTFN
Travis

[Medbh English (the colon queen)]

My favourite punctuation mark, by far. Nice to see a fellow geek waxing prophetic.

;-)