En Dashes and Em Dashes

There are three types of dashes used in writing.

1. The hyphen (-): Hyphens are the shorter lines that are meant to be used to connect two or more words that function together or have a combined meaning. They are often mistakenly used as em-dashes. In most writing styles, this is actually incorrect.

Examples: ‘long-term’, ‘custom-built’, ‘mother-in-law.‘

WRONG: “Everything was going her way – or so she thought.” 

1. The en-dash (–): For the en-dash there is really only one use: to connect distance and ranges. En-dashes are used to connect things such as time/ dates/page numbers.

Examples: ‘The Second Wizarding War was from 1995–1998.‘, ‘I’d like to write several stories from January–September.’, ‘Read pages 394–456.‘

1. The em-dash (—): The em-dash has several uses. The main use is to break up a sentence (sometimes replacing the semi-colon ‘;’, colon ‘:’, comma ‘,’ and parentheses ‘()’) to make it more readable.

Examples:

1. In place of commas:
   “And yet, when the broom was finally delivered[,]—nearly three months after it was ordered[,]—Ginny decided she no longer wanted it.“
2. In place of parentheses:
   “Upon discovering the errors—[(]all 124 of them[)]—the Flourish and Blotts  immediately recalled the books.“
3. In place of colons:
   “The laughter, the magic, the freedom from parents[:]—this is what brought students to Hogwarts.”

Interrupting and omitting letters

Em-dashes are also useful for omitting letters and indicating interruptions of sentences (including thought and dialogue).

1. Omitting letters: “The parchment was wet, but we could make out the following: ‘M——t me a— ——nto—— Is———d.’
2. Interrupting sentences: “Fred, George, what do you think you’re do—”
3. Setting off an action beat between two parts of the same sentence: “Look over there”—she pointed to the corner—”by the bookshelves.”

Consistency 

The most important thing is consistency. In most styles of writing, there is no space between the em-dash and the words it connects (which is preferred). However, in the AP style of writing (often used in newspapers), there is a space.

Example: “Most newspapers — and all that follow AP style — insert a space before and after the em dash.”

Be consistent with your spaces, or you will get marked down for inconsistency.

Similarly, please don’t put a space before an em-dash and then not after it, or not before one but after.

WRONG: “He was a little bit frightened— and amused— at Filch’s expression”, or “He was a little bit frightened —and amused —at Filch’s expression”.

As mentioned before, many people tend to replace the em-dash with a hyphen. It can be a substitute (especially in cases of computers or website that do not support the use of em-dashes for whatever reason), but only if people put spaces in between.

Example: You can use hyphens to write, “He was a little bit frightened – and amused – at Filch’s expression” but never “He was a little bit frightened-and amused-at Filch’s expression.” There is no such word as ‘frightened-and’ or ‘amused-at.’

Our judges will not deduct when hyphens are used in place of en- or em-dashes, but be consistent and mind the spaces!

Figuring out Muggle technology

All of this information is no use at all if you do not actually know how to create an em-dash, en-dash and hyphen on your computer. It is different for MacBooks than for other computers. You may need to check on the internet, and if you find a different solution, please feel free to let us and the readers know.

In general, this is the way to go:

1. en-dash (–): alt + “-”
2. em-dash (—): alt + shift + “-”