Dashes

You can use a dash for emphasis, but use it sparingly. To form the dash, type two hyphens with no spaces before or after. For example:

Ricky Martin has two great influences--Elvis and The Beatles.

Use a dash to set off phrases with examples, illustrations, or summaries, anywhere within a sentence. Consider these examples:

Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau--these great transcendentalists changed American attitudes about nature.
Three great American transcendentalists--Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau--changed attitudes about nature.
Those who changed attitudes about the natural world in America were the great transcendentalists--Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau.

Dashes, like commas, can be used to set off items in a list. Consider this example:

Mozart--a child genius--produced more than 600 compositions--symphonies, operas, and concertos.

However, try not to use too many dashes in a sentence or a passage. Replace unnecessary dashes with commas. Consider the following revision of the above example:

Mozart, a child genius, produced more than 600 compositions--symphonies, operas, and concertos.

When preparing a manuscript, use the single dash, known as a hyphen, to divide words of more than one syllable at the end of a line. When hyphenating words, try to leave two or more letters at the end of a line and three or more letters at the beginning of a line. Do not divide one-syllable words.

The following sentences correctly use hyphens to break words:

The lake that I visited was very peace-
ful and pleasant.
I discovered that I could live peace-
fully alone for many weeks.

Divide compound words only at the hyphen

Incorrect hyphenation:	I finally met my sis-
	ter-in-law last weekend.
Correct hyphenation:	I finally met my sister-
	in-law last weekend.

Avoid word divisions that confuse the reader. The following sentence is a confusing hyphenation:

Confusing:	Walking out of class was an act of her-
	oism.
Clearer:	Walking out of class was an act of hero-
	ism.

Finally, do not confuse the dash or the hyphen with the slash. The slash is used only between options or to separate lines of poetry. Consider these examples:

Some teachers oppose pass/fail courses.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, / But I have promises to keep.”

Which sentence is correct? We chose to stay at a seaside Bed and Breakfast/a former country estate of a wealthy sea captain. The covered bridge—an enduring symbol of rural Vermont—created the perfect backdrop for their wedding photos.