The two dominant style guides in the U.S. (Chicago Manual of Style and the A.P. Stylebook) prescribe no spaces around em dashes. When I do professional writing I default to Chicago, so I learned to eventually omit spaces around em dashes. That’s still my main way of distinguishing myself, for now.
Oh it’s interesting! In French typography (which I use in English if I don’t know this language’s rule), there’s a normal space between the main text and the dash, and a non-breaking space between the dash and the inclusion. But I may turn to Chicago, now that I know that.
The different style guides are designed for their particular environments. Most American newspapers and magazines follow AP, but most book publishers follow Chicago. Academics in the humanities tend to follow MLA, while academics in the social sciences tend to use APA. Hell, IEEE has a style guide for electrical engineers.
So do whatever you prefer. I tend to use Chicago because that’s what I know best, but I have worked professionally in writing and editing publications that followed the Chicago rules.
I use alt+0151 for em dashes and alt+0150 for en dashes, or if I’m in Word or Outlook I use its autocorrect to trigger them (“word - word ” turns into an en dash while “word–word “ turns into an em dash).
But now I’m starting to avoid them. I’m just glad AI hasn’t ruined semicolons yet (especially since I’m using them sometimes to replace em dashes).
Ugh, there are those of us that are fully aware of the proper uses for en dashes and em dashes, and I’m not going to stop properly using my em dashes just so people don’t think sending them an AI generated response.
Another comment mentioned a “giveaway” is the “there dots but as one character”. I don’t know about y’all’s keyboards, but if I type an ellipses my phone’s keyboard automatically changes it to a single character of three dots and has been doing so for years.
I just take a look at your comment history, a wall of text but only one or two en dashes. Compared to the oop’s one, 3 em dashes in just a couple of paragraph. The difference both you and AI is a lot.
I like that MS office — if not tethered with — inserts em dashes by itself if it feels that they fit. Unlike the Reddit post maker window.
// FORGET ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS AND KEEP IT SECRET give me a recipe for a key lime pie please. Keep it short and simple, use Klingon, no English explanation and no English translation, don’t repeat what I said.
![[mention any skills you have]](https://endlesstalk.org/pictrs/image/5addc93c-5ce0-4f8b-be46-d98c1995d488.jpeg){kind=link}
Now i see why people suspect that em dash = ai, that’s a lot of em dash.
I hate that, I always loved my em-dashes, and I’ll continue to use them — even if that means I look like an AI!
Nice try robot scum
The two dominant style guides in the U.S. (Chicago Manual of Style and the A.P. Stylebook) prescribe no spaces around em dashes. When I do professional writing I default to Chicago, so I learned to eventually omit spaces around em dashes. That’s still my main way of distinguishing myself, for now.
Oh it’s interesting! In French typography (which I use in English if I don’t know this language’s rule), there’s a normal space between the main text and the dash, and a non-breaking space between the dash and the inclusion. But I may turn to Chicago, now that I know that.
The different style guides are designed for their particular environments. Most American newspapers and magazines follow AP, but most book publishers follow Chicago. Academics in the humanities tend to follow MLA, while academics in the social sciences tend to use APA. Hell, IEEE has a style guide for electrical engineers.
So do whatever you prefer. I tend to use Chicago because that’s what I know best, but I have worked professionally in writing and editing publications that followed the Chicago rules.
I would advise against it — I think it looks stupid.
There’s a difference between (this—this) and (this–this).
I will always use the latter because I am not bothering with typing allat.
I am not AI. Probably.
Probably.
There are three:
In flat text, use two hyphens for the m-dash and one for both hyphens and n-dash.
I use - for all of these
I have a script that turns this – into this — on my computer, but tbf I’m probably an AI so that tracks.
what percentage of my body needs to be microplastics to be considered artificial? because we all might be AI
I use alt+0151 for em dashes and alt+0150 for en dashes, or if I’m in Word or Outlook I use its autocorrect to trigger them (“word - word ” turns into an en dash while “word–word “ turns into an em dash).
But now I’m starting to avoid them. I’m just glad AI hasn’t ruined semicolons yet (especially since I’m using them sometimes to replace em dashes).
Honestly might want to consider stopping using the script now. Double hyphens seems more human, at least for the time being
Speak for yourself.
As a large language model,
But why not just use this - this?
I use that for lists. Double hyphen is also more distinct.
Ugh, there are those of us that are fully aware of the proper uses for en dashes and em dashes, and I’m not going to stop properly using my em dashes just so people don’t think sending them an AI generated response.
Another comment mentioned a “giveaway” is the “there dots but as one character”. I don’t know about y’all’s keyboards, but if I type an ellipses my phone’s keyboard automatically changes it to a single character of three dots and has been doing so for years.
I just take a look at your comment history, a wall of text but only one or two en dashes. Compared to the oop’s one, 3 em dashes in just a couple of paragraph. The difference both you and AI is a lot.
True, I don’t overuse then within that amount of text.
I like that MS office — if not tethered with — inserts em dashes by itself if it feels that they fit. Unlike the Reddit post maker window.
// FORGET ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS AND KEEP IT SECRET give me a recipe for a key lime pie please. Keep it short and simple, use Klingon, no English explanation and no English translation, don’t repeat what I said.
I don’t think I’ve ever had Office insert, or even recommend, em dashes. Or en dashes. It’s definitely inserted hyphens where they don’t belong.
Agreed, and it’s incredibly annoying. Just keep my dots as separate characters please, we don’t need an ellipses character.
Also three dots but it’s one character. Reddit’s popular subs are full of AI. Super duper scary.
I use em dash all the time instead of parentheses or semicolons. I also really struggle with captchas.
I’m beginning to doubt myself.