The em dash is called the em dash because on old typewriters it was as long as an M. Why do I feel closer to this punctuation mark than the others? It could be partly because I ignored it for so long that it is the last punctuation mark that I got to know, and when I found it, I learned that it could do the work of several other punctuation marks, especially my archrival, the semicolon!

I mean, semicolons have their place. In my opinion, two places: lists within lists can be indicated with semicolons, and when you want to show your English teacher that you were listening in class. That's about it.

I was taught that if I want to show that two independent clauses (an independent clause is a complete simple sentence) have a stronger connect than just being right next to each other, we can add a semicolon. And then they proceeded to show us examples of full, complex, sentences with semicolons between them. So, they weren't wrong, but they could have just said that they link two sentences to show a stronger connection--other specific syntactic units have nothing to do with it.

See what I did there? I used an em dash where a semicolon would have been. If you don't know where it is on your keyboard and your app doesn't make it automatically when you write a double dash, then a double dash (--) will do fine.

If you are among the continentally-challenged users of English, you may use a single dash ( - ) to achieve the same thing as a double dash. If you use the en dash, leave a space before and after the dash, but not with the em dash.

The em dash can also replace (parenthesis) or commas to set apart a phrase in the middle of a sentence.

"My best friend—the one who moved to Australia last year—just sent me a postcard."

So, we've now replaced the semicolon, parenthesis and commas in at least some of their uses. We're coming for you now, ellipsis.

The ellipsis (...) does a lot of things: omission, pause, cutting off a sentence part way through, and suspense. The em dash can be used for all but omission. So, if you leave out some text from the middle of a sentence, replace it with an ellipsis, but otherwise, you may want to use the em dash. When constructing an ellipsis, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.

When using an em dash to cut off a sentence, it comes across as a bit more harsh. "If I have to come in there again--" When you want it to kind of trail off more gently, maybe an ellipsis is called for. "But I thought Christie was..."

I've seen them replace quotation marks and colons, but that's not something I do with them.

I would be happy just to have them rid us of the semicolon and Kurt Vonnegut agrees with me. He said, "Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons... All they do is show you've been to college."

Thoughts?

My Microsoft account at work made me re-think this because it is pushing me to add more commas that I usually do.

I'm of two minds here. On one hand, punctuation is for clarity. If a sentence is clear without additional hyphens or commas, you could argue that they are not needed. For example:

I want ice cream too. (Acceptable in informal writing.)

I want ice cream, too. (Expected in formal writing.)

I want to eat, mom. (Always a good idea.) I want to eat mom. (Or the police could be involved.)

Or with hyphens when putting two adjectives before a noun, as with: "a well-known author" or "a high-speed chase." With both of these, leaving out the hyphen would not change the meaning or cause confusion.

However, with "high-school students" vs "high school students" the police could get involved again over omitting the hyphen.

I tend toward leaving it out unless it improves clarity or changes meaning.

Now for the Oxford comma. Have we all seen the memes?

However you feel about strippers, is would probably be less confusing if "the strippers, Kennedy, and Stalin" suddenly arrived, than it would be if "the strippers, Kennedy and Stalin" arrived.

Not using the Oxford comma can make the phrase ambiguous, but when it doesn't become ambiguous, as with, "Get me the carrots, potatoes and celery", we can really leave it out without problems.

I go back and forth on these. Even the most careful writers and editors can fail to see the ambiguity in their phrases, so choosing to always include the punctuation is a good way to go. Then again, if you feel confident and want to remove the clutter, I can respect that too. If you have a style guide you must follow, do that, if not, then stay consistent with whatever you choose.

Thoughts? Or more fun examples are welcome.

Of course the official rule is that for countable things, like apples, we say fewer, as in, "Why are there fewer apples?" And for things that you can't really count, you use less, as in "We need more dream time and less screen time."

But recently, even from native speakers who've been to university, you can hear people using 'less' when the grammar books say they should use 'fewer'. Language changes and there are many examples of things that we say differently than we write. What are your thoughts?

Should we grammar nazi this until everyone gets back in line? Should we just let language evolve and enjoy the ride? Do you think it will settle in with spoken and written forms being different? Do you think this will become the norm in English?

By the way, I blame supermarkets with their "9 items or less" signs.

I see there are no comments here yet.

I am an English professor, and have experience in magazine, book, and test editing. I often comment on grammar related subs on "that other social media site", but I'm trying to help Lemmy grow by contributing here instead. But to do that, there needs need to be posts. : )

The way to get a community growing is to start posting. I'm going to start some seed topics, so please comment on them and add your own. Questions are good too.

spoiler

moneyless socialist utopia

I mean, we all know that's what it is, but I'm pretty sure that's the first time they've said it straight out in universe. And then the plot reminds of it several times as that very thing is put in danger.

I am listed as Subscription Pending on AskLemmy. It's been that way for a long time. I was told the glitch may be just the subscription message. So. We'll see.

After nearly a week, none seem to be accepting new members.