Over the past few weeks we’ve been dashing and colon-ing and semicolon-ing. But we’ve been doing them all separately. A direct comparison between those punctuation marks seemed to be missing. If I had a sentence where all three of them seemed to work, which one should I choose? … [Read more...] about Dash, Colon, Semicolon—which is right for my sentence?
Grammar Blogs
Hyphens, EN dashes, and EM dashes. What’s the difference? And how do you type each of them?
There a three punctuation marks that look like a dash: The hyphen - The EN dash – The EM dash — … [Read more...] about Hyphens, EN dashes, and EM dashes. What’s the difference? And how do you type each of them?
Oh, dash!
Grammarly.com compares dashes to Swiss army knives. They can stand in for commas, colons, and parentheses, as well as doing jobs of their own. There are, however, two things that unite everything dashes do: they interrupt, and they demand attention. When they’re used instead of … [Read more...] about Oh, dash!
Semicolons—What in the world do they do?
Welcome to week two of our foray into punctuation marks I wish were easier to use correctly. Last week, we figured colons out, and you can read that blog here. This week we’ve got semicolons to deal with. They’ve got three uses—one that’s somewhat tricky to navigate, and two that … [Read more...] about Semicolons—What in the world do they do?
Colons—How in the world do you use those?
If I could have it my way, three punctuation marks would have permanent how-to guides hovering above them. Colons, semicolon, and dashes. Ever felt that way yourself? Well, over the next three weeks we’ll do the best we can—in the absence of hovering how-to guides—to lay out … [Read more...] about Colons—How in the world do you use those?