— em dashes and spaces —

Do you put spaces round yours?

Comments

[gapty]

No

[abrony-mouse]

5781671
thanks for comment :)

but achsually in sore throat you leave a space after the firsht one sho...

[gapty]

5781675

I'm gonna leave a space on you—

[Gavier]

Nope— not before, anyways. After it, yeah.

[Loganberry]

No, but being British I don't use them as much as (most?) Americans do in any case. It's one of the little Transatlantic divides that still holds on to some extent. When you're using them for little asides it usually goes:

UK English: en-dashes with spaces, eg: "The first in the series – Rarity and the Giant Hat – was a hit."
US English: em-dashes without spaces, eg: "The first in the series—Rarity and the Giant Hat—was a hit."

Mind you, I tend to be inconsistent in my own writing. I've largely settled on doing it the UK way for stuff like the above example, but using an (unspaced) em-dash if there's a sudden break, such as an interrupted conversation. (Rarity said, "I think we need a—" and then abruptly disappeared.)

[PresentPerfect]

If I actually used em-dashes? No. But -- is supposed to turn into an em-dash in certain programs, but it doesn't, so I have always used a hybrid of double-hyphen with spaces on both sides :V for the lulz

[abrony-mouse]

5781688
I like this!

[abrony-mouse]

5781696
ooh, I didn't realise it was an American/English divide. I have been using them because my Word leaves them as hyphens too often, and en dashes just don't look as good to me. Also, I <3 interruptions in dialogue and afterthoughts.

The em-dash in the example definitely looks better than an en-dash, though. Yay inconsistency, if it means things looking better

[abrony-mouse]

5781712
the basic word programs do that when they come across em dashes :P (I know because I had to convert one of my fics). Anyway, by using the double space, you do what I do too!

[iisaw]

The Chicago Manual of Style says not to use spaces, and that was what I was taught in school. When I see em-dashes with spaces it always looks wrong to me. Of course, I hardly ever see em-dashes; I think most people don't know they exist.

[abrony-mouse]

5781796
yup, that's definitely the correct way to use em. Newspapers often don't use them like that, though - they put the spaces