The Difference Between Commas and Dashes
I’ve seen punctuation misused so many times it hurts. Now, rules are made to be broken in the literary world, I understand, but the wanton use of these precious little things is a travesty.
First, to clarify, there is a difference between an em dash—our primary subject for today—and a hyphen. A hyphen is that short little line that adjoins words, like in “the nine-year-old” or “stand-point.” An em dash is what is used to separate clauses and phrases in sentences.
What I’m going to cover is mainly a tone thing. In many cases, commas and dashes are interchangeable—mainly due to the versatile nature of the dash. This is also according to SAT and ACT logic, so listen up kids.
A comma denotes a short pause. It’s all part of the same idea and the same breath, just a little spaced out. EX: The horse, which grazed in the field, looked at me. The phrase “which grazed in the field” described the horse, but also flowed with the objective tone of the sentence. And, of course, commas can be used to separate compound sentences, but I’m hoping most of you jokers know that. And since that is not a function of a dash, we’re not going to go into detail about that one.
A dash, however, is a break in tone. It’s an aside, for all you theater blokes out there, for all intents and purposes. Almost like a parentheses, if you will. A phrase in between a dash is additional information—something that isn’t necessarily needed, but interesting anyways. It’s also, from a literary stand-point, a sure-fire sign of a break in tone. (Remember this on your AP Lit exam, kids; it’ll save your butt.) EX: The horse—a beautiful creature, if I ever saw one—looked at me.
Now, are we getting the point? Excellent.