Comments on: We Interrupt This Sentence–

By: weeping for brunnhilde

weeping for brunnhilde — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 23:10:06 +0000

I prefer parenthetical thoughts, myself.

I find it very challenging indeed to express myself without them (when I have anything worth expressing, of course).

By: MDF

MDF — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:20:22 +0000

The problem with the writing here isn’t the dashes — it’s the parentheticals.

By: ColoYank

ColoYank — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:20:59 +0000

Dang. I thought it might be called the em-dash in honor of its most distinguished and prolific user, the nonetheless divine Miss Emily Dickinson.

By: rbj

rbj — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:48:56 +0000

In grade school, I constantly used commas, it took a lot of work, to cut down, on my use of commas.

By: RIYank

RIYank — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:33:36 +0000

It’s an “em dash” because it is the width of an em. That is, the width of ‘m’, originally. (Now defined as 9 points.)

By: thelarmis

thelarmis — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:06:44 +0000

[9] yeah, me too…

a dash of ellipses does a writing good!

By: briang

briang — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:58:48 +0000

i like me some elipses………

By: thelarmis

thelarmis — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:46:12 +0000

NOT lazy!!! i still like ‘em. harrumph.

hey, why is it called an “em-dash”. never hoid that before…

in all honesty, i do find the dash to be effective and not disruptive.

By: RIYank

RIYank — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:39:00 +0000

[6] Oh, monkeypants will tell you where they should be put.

By: Just Fair

Just Fair — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:36:09 +0000

I never know where to put a dash at. ; )

By: Alex Belth

Alex Belth — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:35:34 +0000

3 and 4) Agreed. I use them without thought but after reading this piece I have challenged myself to use them sparingly. Hey, not everyone is Fitzgerald, who uses them beautifully in “Gatsby.”

By: RIYank

RIYank — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:31:40 +0000

Yeah, I’m with Alex. I use them too, but I have to agree that it’s a sign of laziness and the sentence can generally be written better without them. A ‘crutch’ is a good word for it, Bronx Boy.

By: Bronx Boy in NC

Bronx Boy in NC — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:19:34 +0000

Once I’ve completed a first draft of something, I go back and spell-check, hunt down inadvertent passives, and rewrite to remove half the em-dashes. Definitely a crutch.

By: Alex Belth

Alex Belth — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:14:39 +0000

I use them too but the author’s point is well-taken, the em-dash is often used because writer’s get lazy.

By: thelarmis

thelarmis — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:08:31 +0000

fuck, i *love* the dash. seriously, i do. i use ‘em a lot and on purpose! oh well. i’ll continue to do so…