Editing, whether it is for an academic journal, a short story submission, or a non-fiction manuscript for publishing, always follows basic rules of grammar and punctuation. This blog will help you learn the basic rules of em dashes and ellipses, and how to use them accurately in your work. While this blog will assist fiction writers most often, this is a useful skill to have in your writing arsenal.

The em dash

Em Dash

The em dash is a longer dash that is similar to a hyphen. It is used to show a pause in a quote that is all one sentence, and it is also used to show when one sentence trails off and another begins.

For example,

“I hope that you have told me the truth – you don’t always.”  This quote is all one sentence, but there was a pause in between the words truth and you that are represented by the em dash.

OR

“He just walked right in through the – He didn’t even think to announce his presence!”  This shows that one sentence trailed off and another began – NOTE the capital letter to begin the second sentence.

When typing in Microsoft Word, you can prompt one of these dashes by placing a space after the last letter of the word, hitting the hyphen key (next to the zero) and then pressing your spacebar again before typing the next word. Most Microsoft Word applications use an auto format that will insert the em dash for you.

Ellipses

Ellipsis

In contrast, the ellipsis is used to show when a thought trails off and the sentence is incomplete. It is a series of three dots.

For example,

“I just couldn’t believe what he was…” she muttered, as if to herself.

These quotation marks most often trip up fiction writers, as they’re used often in dialogue. However, whether you are writing a fiction piece, or working on an academic submission, please remember that the professional editors at Firstediting are always here to assist you with your work.  Happy Writing!

Related posts:

1. How to Improve Your Writing: Capitalization
2. 7 Ways to Check Your Commas When Self-Editing
3. Hyphens, EN Dashes and EM Dashes
4. Finding the Right Literary Agent for Your Manuscript
5. Useful Ideas for Revising or Editing

Tags: editing, editors, ellipses, firstediting, Professional Editing, Proofreading, The em dash, writing tips

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at 8:54 am and is filed under Book Editing, Book Editors, Business Editing, Christian Writing, Copy Editing, Editing Skills & Services, Fiction Editing, Manuscript Editing, Newsletters, Novel Editing, Proofreading, Technical Editing, Thesis/Research Writing, Writer's Tips, Writing for Publication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.