How To Use Dashes And Parentheses

Using parentheses and dashes properly adds structure to your sentences and helps you avoid the absent minded professor effect.

How to use dashes and parentheses. Dashes and parentheses perform seven basic and related functions in written english. Let s start with those quiet parentheses. The following article explains the seven uses of dashes and hyphens in written. Dashes are used as punctuation in sentences. The dash comes in two distinct varieties.

A pair of em dashes can replace a pair of parentheses. The en dash is often used to indicate spans of time or ranges of numbers. Do not leave space before or after a dash. En dashes may look similar to em dashes but they function in a much different way. Separate appositives introduce emphasizations enclose clarifications enclose asides and additional information introduce explanations introduce an explanation of a preceding series and enclose numbers or letters in a list.

This makes your writing easier to understand and lets you add details. If you want to include the parenthetical content more subtly use parentheses. Using the en dash to indicate spans of time or ranges of numbers. They are also more intrusive. You use them to surround something that seems a bit out of place in the sentence an aside a clarification or a.

The en dash is often used as a replacement for the word to. Do not overuse dashes or use them in place of other punctuation. Dashes are considered less formal than parentheses. Dashes parentheses and commas can actually be used interchangeably as a way to mark some of the information in a sentence as not necessary to the main meaning non restrictive information for you grammar wizards. Find out more in a bitesize ks2 english guide.

Use parentheses to enclose supplemental material including in text citations minor digressions and afterthoughts. If you want to draw attention to the parenthetical content use dashes. The em dash and the en dash. Recall that en dashes are slightly shorter in length than em dashes. Hyphens are shorter than dashes and are used to connect words.