It has a similar width as a capital letter N. On the other hand, it has another variation named an “en dash (–),” which is slightly narrower. In fact, the dash (-) is named for its length as it is the same width as the capital letter M in the alphabet. Despite its versatility, this dash differs from other hyphens and dashes significantly in both usage and appearance. Jefferson used to hurl them like javelins across the page.” So is the rise of the dash related-as everything seems to be these days-to the End of Men? (I kid-calm down.The dash, specifically an em dash, is the most versatile punctuation mark. In Gore Vidal’s Burr, the title character complains-in a charming internal monologue-“Why am I using so many dashes? Like a schoolgirl. Henry Fielding apparently rewrote his sister Sarah’s work heavily to edit out some of her idiosyncrasies-chief among them, a devotion to the dash. According to the essay “ Emily Dickinson’s Volcanic Punctuation“ from a 1993 edition of The Emily Dickinson Journal-a true general-interest read!-“Dickinson’s excessive use of dashes has been interpreted variously as the result of great stress and intense emotion, as the indication of a mental breakdown, and as a mere idiosyncratic, female habit.” Can there really be-at the risk of sounding like a troglodyte-something feminine about the use of a dash, some sort of lighthearted gossamer quality? Compare Dickinson’s stylistic flitting with the brutally short sentences of male writers-Hemingway, for instance-who, arguably, use their clipped style to evoke taciturn masculinity. Perhaps the most famous dash-user in history-though she didn’t use the em dash conventionally-was Emily Dickinson. The em dash isn’t easily formed on computers-it requires some special keystrokes on both PCs and Macs-and so I will admit that at least some of my bile comes from, as a copy editor, endlessly changing other writers’ sloppy em-dash simulacra (the double dash, the single offset dash) to the real thing. The symbol derives its name from its width- approximately equal to an m-and is easily confused with its close cousin the en dash, used more frequently across the pond, but here meant only to offset sports scores and the like. Folklore-if you’re willing to trust it-holds that it’s been around since the days of Gutenberg but didn’t catch on until at least the 1700s because the em dash wasn’t used in the Bible, and thus was considered an inferior bit of punctuation. It’s unclear-even among the printing community-when the em dash came into common usage. An explanation is not an excuse, though-as Corbett wrote in another sensible harangue against the dash, “Sometimes a procession of such punctuation is a hint that a sentence is overstuffed or needs rethinking.” Why not try for clarity in our writing-if not our lives? Perhaps, in some way, the recent rise of the dash-and this “trend” is just anecdotal observation I admit I haven’t found a way to crunch the numbers-is a reaction to our attention-deficit-disordered culture, in which we toggle between tabs and ideas and conversations all day. As for what I think of his observation-well, consider how I have chosen to offset it.) Don’t you find it annoying-and you can tell me if you do, I won’t be hurt-when a writer inserts a thought into the midst of another one that’s not yet complete? Strunk and White-who must always be mentioned in articles such as this one-counsel against overusing the dash as well: “Use a dash only when a more common mark of punctuation seems inadequate.” Who are we, we modern writers, to pass judgment-and with such shocking frequency-on these more simple forms of punctuation-the workmanlike comma, the stalwart colon, the taken-for-granted period? (One colleague-arguing strenuously that certain occasions call for the dash instead of other punctuation, for purposes of tone-told me he thinks of the parenthesis as a whisper, and the dash as a way of calling attention to a phrase. It also-and this might be its worst sin-disrupts the flow of a sentence. The problem with the dash-as you may have noticed!-is that it discourages truly efficient writing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |