The Em Dash This recent episode of 99% Invisible is catnip for a type-lover’s soul.
I’m a proud member of Team Em Dash, and have had its keyboard shortcut burned into muscle memory for decades. As the podcast notes, this lovely typographic device can help build or break up the rhythm of a text, letting it work more like how you and I actually speak.
Usage? No surrounding spaces for me, please—it’s wide enough already. And web browsers figured out how to line break them ages ago, so I’ll hear none of that. (Also, not that you asked, but en dashes for pure numerical ranges like “2005–2025” when publishing tools allow, please and thank you very much.)
While years of working with AP style-tinged newsrooms has curbed my usage, I still think it stinks that ChatGPT has saddled the em dash with a new stigma divorced from its merits.
Anyway, listen to it. Then go put an em dash somewhere someone told you it doesn’t belong—you’ve earned it.