Not many people are conversant with the dash – a punctuation in the English language. The dash is, however, mostly misused by some who use it. See the following example of a misuse of the dash:
‘There are also a great number of people – many of them not in the least tainted by militarism – who go further and who feel that a man in order to be a complete man – that is, one capable of protecting his life, his country, and his civil and political rights – should acquire as a boy and youth the elements of military training – that is, should be given a physical training…
In the paragraph above, the writer uses the dash in a frivolous way. It isn’t necessary to use the dash in all parts of your sentence; however, when used properly, the dash can make your points stand out clearly. See the following sentence examples for use of punctuations other than the dash and tell if they sit right.
Parenthesis: He was (God forgive him!) a scoundrel.
Commas: He was, God forgive him!, a scoundrel.
Semicolons: He was; God forgive him!; a scoundrel.
Colons: He was: god forgive him!: a scoundrel.
Do you consider the use of these four punctuation marks as awkward? If so, check out the dash: ‘He was – God forgive him! – a scoundrel.’ How about this? You can tell now that the dash is the best punctuation to use for this sentence. The dash has versatility (two dashes can interrupt a sentence – as they are doing now – while one can extend a sentence – like this) and grammatical respectability. Even though a statement that deploys the dash is so strong and dramatic, care needs to be taken lest the use of a dash becomes a trap. Too many dashes can lead to writing that jars and irritates – as in the example I shared in the first paragraph – both visually and mentally. Suppose we could impose rules about dashes, they would look like this:
1. Don’t use dashes in adjoining sentences.
2. Restrict their use to a pair per page.
3. Try not to use the dash as an all-purpose punctuation mark.
Let’s now examine some uses of the dash.
The first is the use of dashes for parenthesising. See the example we shared above: He was – God forgive him! – a scoundrel. This sentence shows a good instance of a pair of dashed used as a parenthetical element, and this usage is growing by day. You could take just about any example of parenthesising brackets and substitute dashes, and today few would object. Now, look at the following sentence. Notice that we could construct them using parentheses, but what’s wrong with dashes?
‘The dogs are so passive – they are virtually impossible to goad or excite – that the breed makes an ideal children’s pet.’
All right, let’s talk about why it might be problematic for some writers using the dash. For one thing, they may forget to complete the parenthesis with a second dash. Consider the following construction by an author: ‘No wonder that in some matters the dash has fallen into disrepute, but I still maintain that, if kept in its place – and I make one here for luck, it’s a very useful stop.’ Did you notice how the author forgot to add the second dash between ‘luck’ and ‘it’s’? He rather incorrectly and inconsistently placed a comma. The lesson? Don’t be slapdash with the dash!
The versatile dash is yet another kind of dash used by most writers. If you are observant, you will have noticed that not all dashes are the same length. There are two kinds of dashes known as the em and the en dashes. The standard one is one em in length and is the em dash. The en dash is exactly half the length of the em, and incidentally, twice the length of the hyphen. It is mostly used to show ranges in numbers and dates and can also be used for clarity in forming complex compound adjectives. It derives its name from being about the same width as the letter N. Please note that the en dash is predominantly a typographic device for specific usages, as can be seen in the following examples: Vols I-XII; 1917-1922; Addis Ababa-Frankfurt flight; pages 30-37; June-July, etc. Typically, a hyphen is used to connect the words in a compound adjective, but when the compound adjective contains an entity that is made up of multiple words, it’s correct to use an en dash. See this example of the use of the hyphen: ‘She was a scholar of the post-war novel.’ Another example: ‘This rock-hard cake is absolutely the best!’ Hyphens are interesting though, but we will discuss them in more details later. But now, let’s see an example of the use of the en dash when the compound adjective contains an entity that is made up of multiple words: ‘She was a scholar of the post–World War II novel.’
There are other instances where the dash can be used legitimately, and – yes – even elegantly. The first of these is perhaps also the most common of usages: substituting for colons.
Linking device: ‘Mrs Simi had four daughters – Bidemi, Toluwanise, Marzooq, and Faiza.
As a pause: ‘Everyone expected the speaker to be controversial – but not to the extent of swearing at the chairwoman and falling off the stage.’
Adding emphasis: ‘There is nothing – absolutely nothing – that will make me change my mind about you.’
Noting an exception: ‘A straight line is the shortest distance between two points – when you’re sober.’
Separating lists: ‘She assembled all the ingredients – flour, sugar, eggs, salt, lard, and raisins – and started on the pudding.
Afterthought: ‘They babbled on, delighted at sighting the rare parakeet – I didn’t see so much as a feather.’
Lastly, let’s talk about the dash in sentence construction. To do this, we will make recourse to some excerpts by Shiva Naipaul’s Love and Death in a Hot Country. Pay attention to his use of a dash to introduce the subjects, and then a colon to set off a conclusion:
‘Everything seemed more dramatic than ever – Aubrey, the woman he called his wife, himself, the hot square of garden: shadows whose actions and words he did not fully understand.
He also prefers dashes to parenthesise, rather than commas:
Dina had no idea what – if anything – was expected of her.
And, again, dashes substitute for colons:
Imagine a family – a family, if you wish, like my own.