You Learn Something New: Em-Dashes

I was incommunicado for a couple of days, without any computer access at all. I think I will recover fully, but it was touch-and-go last night. Please accept this complicated topic as reparations.

In response to a comment on my recent anti-semicolon post, I researched the difference between using an en-dash (a short dash that looks like a hyphen but is not a hyphen) rather than an em-dash (a long dash often represented by a double-hyphen). I came across a discussion about various type styles and dashes. The posts were written five years ago, but the discussion gives some good history.

I then found a surprising page about the en-dash versus em-dashes in singles, pairs, and trios. Each version has an appropriate set of uses and a special character. I had no idea!

I use en-dashes (hyphen-length) for em-dashes (double-hyphens that many word processors replace with a special character. I have done that for years because I think—as do several folks in the first discussion—that the double-hyphen construction is unattractive.

The special character (as seen in the previous sentence) does not appear magically on bulletin boards and fora. To avoid the ugly version, I began using the [space]hyphen[space] construction that you can see in other posts on this blog. MS Word automatically replaces that with an em-dash with a space on either side.

The problem is that the special character does not translate into a noticeably different-length dash in most HTML editors like the one for this blog. I never thought to review their appearance as posted rather than in the editor. The way I use en-dashes gets the point across but is technically incorrect. I am trying to break my bad habit, and thanks to Carradee for the “heads up”.

Does anyone else have a bad habit to explore, my oversight or yours?