How To Use Em Dashes In Dialogue
Use em dashes to provide insight into the mind of the characters or to show interruptions in dialogue.
How to use em dashes in dialogue. Ashley stared at max who was sitting in the middle of the disheveled living room. It is also common to use a pair of em dashes to replace parentheses or a pair of commas. James joyce used it to set off dialogue because he had a particular antipathy for quotation marks. A pair of em dashes can replace a pair of parentheses. The em dash sometimes just called a dash is used to set off information from the rest of the sentence and mimics or copycats other more formal punctuation marks.
Three types of punctuation signify interrupted dialogue. If you want to draw attention to the parenthetical content use dashes. An em dash is also useful in dialogue to show a break in thought that s abrupt rather than a trailing thought that gets an ellipsis. The hyphen the em dash and the ellipsis. When your time is up post your practice in the comments section.
Ellipses and em dashes can be used to add rhythm and realism to dialogue but they can be distracting if too many of them pile up in quick succession. It is often used in place of colons or semicolons. They are also more intrusive. Alt ctrl period. To show an interruption of the spoken words include an em dash inside the quotation marks at the point where the dialogue is interrupted.
Authors like to use em dashes in all three cases. 2 the weary traveler forgot something in the airport bathroom her plane ticket. Nonbreaking space in word for windows. Ctrl shift spacebar ellipsis character in word for windows. Below i ll show examples of how to use these punctuation marks depending on the nature of the interruption.
Some people have different tastes but here are a few examples and rules to let you know when to use. Em dashes in place of parentheses. The em dash is not always correct though. Dashes are considered less formal than parentheses. To answer your last question amanda ellipses can be correct.