Add flair to your
dash!
Are too many dashes used in writing these days? I’d love to
know what you think. For my part, I love dashes and I believe that their proper
use can pep up a sentence and helps to emphasise parts of it that might
otherwise be overlooked.
But – just as an aside – don’t you like the word ‘dash’? It
has a certain freedom and quick spirit about it and runs nicely into the word ‘dashing’
which is equally cavalier, playful and charming. That’s one of the marvellous
things about the English language generally, that if you take a word out and
hold it up against the light it will often sparkle with meaning and might well
be added to the growing box of your favourites.
Enough of such asides; my brief purpose is to look at the
use of the dash – so onwards.
You might notice that modern novels are full
of dashes. It has been suggested (mostly I think by cynics and pedants) that,
because many modern novelists are
illiterate, they use the dash to save themselves the trouble of deciding
whether they should use commas, semi-colons or brackets to isolate their
subordinate clauses. In fact, the dash is a very useful and perfectly
legitimate punctuation mark if used sparingly – it can break up a sentence to
allow you to emphasise your point without appearing too repetitious.
You can use dashes in a similar way to brackets:
e.g. After the
performance – the last of the season – the ballerina retired to the country.
I think this example clearly illustrates where a dash is in
fact preferable to a bracket. As a rule, if I am ever tempted to use a bracket
I first ask myself, do I need this extra phrase, this additional information?
When I do need it because it is useful information, adding colour to the sentence,
I normally find that it reads better and is more noticeable used between dashes
than cubby-holed in brackets. Many readers see bracketed material as of secondary
importance, or information that might otherwise be in a footnote. And they may
be right.
When used in the way exampled above, two dashes – one before
and one after the extra phrase – are needed, as with brackets. When the phrase
comes at the end of the sentence you only need to have the one dash – as in
this ending.
Here’s another way of using a dash:
e.g. She gave a
magnificent performance – no one could equal her.
In this example a colon might have been used instead of a
dash but the effect would have been rather stilted and formal.
So dashes are worthy. But do be especially careful not to
overuse them. Paragraphs littered with dashes look clumsy, can be hard to read
and actually do tend to betray a lack of knowledge on the writer’s part of appropriate
punctuation. In particular, be careful not to use more than one additional
phrase, marked by a dash, in one sentence. This will seriously promote
confusion because a reader will never know which parts of the sentence are
supposed to relate.
e.g. He turned away –
the interview was over – and walked towards the window – the light had now
faded – sensing that he had failed in his efforts – he would have to try
something else.
This said, the dash is sometimes legitimately used to link a
series of connected phrases:
e.g. The autumn trees
were a splendid sight – splashes of red – sudden glints of gold and silver – a carpet
of russet brown beneath the trunks.
While this is not incorrect, it is unusual. In my thinking,
it is preferable to use one initial dash and then link the other phrases
together with commas.
As in all things, as writers we need to think of achieving
the right balance and this is a visual as well as syntactical and also rhythmical
quality. Over and under-use of punctuation trips up and spoils the balance. So
enjoy your dashes but don’t spray them on your prose like confetti.
That’s it – must dash!!
