The ‘Em Dash’ is a powerful punctuation mark that can replace your commas, parentheses, or even colons—creating structure and flow. See what I did there? Using them correctly, however, can take some confidence, practice, and some getting used to. On top of that, it would seem AI has also grasped the em dash basics—but don’t let that discourage you from using them. It is likely that your favorite books contain em dashes. I’m currently reading ACTOR, and guess what? Pretty much every other page is utilizing them. That’s not to say that ACTOR should be considered a great literary work, but what I’m trying to say is that em dashes are a tool used by professional writers, and as of today, that includes you.

How to get started? There are a few things to keep in mind. First, the distinction between the different dashes and their use-cases.

Em Dash (—)

Is used to create a strong break in a sentence, to add emphasis, an explanation, or a sudden interruption. They can also be used to improve flow and clarity, and to make the information you’re presenting in your writing easier to digest. An example of this would be using em dashes in pairs to replace commas in an already comma-heavy sentence.

Mac Book Key Short Cut: Option + Shift + Hyphen

En Dash (–)

Is used to indicate ranges and connections between values (including numeric ones) and locations. Think of where you’d naturally say “to” or “and” to connect two values—that’s most likely where you’ll want to insert an en dash, as in Paris–Amsterdam. En dashes are also used to show a contrast or relationship. An example of this would be a child–parent relationship.

Mac Book Key Short Cut: Option + Hyphen

Hyphen (-)

Is used for compound words—for example, my mother-in-law. When using compound adjectives, you’ll only use hyphens to link words together if they come before a noun. You do not need to hyphenate if the compound adjective comes after the noun, often at the end of a sentence.

Tip: Always throw in a quick Google search—some compound words have evolved over time and are now considered solid words, such as the word email.

Hyphens are also used to add clarity or to avoid double vowels or consonants—for example, re-enter. You can use a hyphen to break a word for flow when jumping to a new line in print and hyphens go with certain prefixes and suffixes.

Mac Book Key Short Cut: Hyphen Key

Second, the style you’re writing in. To any new writers out there, I highly recommend opening up a style guide as you work. A popular example in the publishing industry would be The Chicago Manual of Style—also referred to as CMOS. Mind you, this is going to be somewhat depended on whether you’re writing in British or American English, as they do not only differ in spelling and grammar rules but also in the style guides commonly used. For this guiding article, we’ll be focusing em dashes as referred to in The Chicago Manual of Style.

Pro Tip: If you’re writing for a specific publisher—say, one of the big 5—always check their house style. This will give your writing that feeling of seamless integration with the content they’re already publishing.

Let’s look at how to properly style your em dash according to The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS)

• Spacing

When using em dashes in CMOS, we do not add any spacing before or after the dash—meaning we connect our writing directly to the dash.

Example from The Feathered Kingdom: Days, weeks months, passed by, and the birds brought their reports in on the whereabouts and patterns of the new settlers—their strange ways.

• Capitalizing

Generally speaking, the text following the em dash is not capitalized. However, when an em dash introduces a complete new sentence capitalization is optional and depends on the desired tone and formality the writer would like to use.

Example a quoted sentence: He shouted the words from across the street—“You lied to me!”

This also applies when the word that follows is one that you’d normally capitalize according to standard grammar rules—for instance, a proper noun, meaning a specific name of a person, place, organization, brand, book titles, etc., which are always capitalized in English.

Example: There was only one person who could fix this—Dr. Wigglesworth.

What to avoid?

Some elements will be up to you as a writer and part of developing your personal writing style. Whatever you do, consistency in your style is key. If you’ve made a stylistic choice, make sure you stick with it consistently throughout your entire piece. This makes whichever style you choose to implement appear deliberate and intentional.

That said, there’s a few things you’ll want to avoid—regardless of your stylistic choices. One common issue is confusing the different dashes. A sneaky one is mixing up the en dash and hyphen when dealing with numeric values. Again, grabbing your style guide here can massively help you out.

Now that you’ve gained some confidence with em dashes, try not to overuse them. Overusing the em dash can make your stories read a bit robotically or disjoined. Only insert them where they improve the flow and emphasis of your writing. Personally, I would never add more than two em dashes in a single sentence. Though it’s not technically wrong, it starts to look a little odd when you keep piling them on.

Also, don’t confuse em dashes interruptions with trailing off, which would usual be indicated by an ellipsis (…). And always make sure your interruption is logically placed in the sentence. If you struggle with this reading the sentence out loud can help you figure out the logical placement.

That’s it, my ultimate guide to using em dashes with confidence. If you have any doubts Google can always help you out, and whatever you do, don’t use AI. Writing is and will always be an art form let’s keep it that way.

Go out there and write your heart out—because you can always come back this, and many other articles on the World Wide Web, to fix your punctuation. But there’s nothing to fix if you haven’t put the words to paper. I, for one, can’t wait to see your work!

Other recommendations to make your writing shine:

C.S. Lewis (yes, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia) on Writing (and Writers): A Miscellany of Advice and Opinions.

Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte.