The em dash is the plebeian punctuation mark; the semicolon is the patrician’s choice.
The em dash is the plebeian punctuation mark; the semicolon is the patricians choice.
The em dash is the plebeian punctuation mark; the semicolon is the patrician’s choice.
I use both of them in massive quantities
Full stops > em dashes and semicolons.
I wonder how bad your writing would be if you never used semicolons or em dashes.
Grammarians—what; a bunch of—homosexuals
i can't figure out what you'e saying because the punctuation is too unhinged
They are not the same and can not be used interchangeably unless you are a prescription short, if so you are doomed to mediocrity either way.
OK, morons guide to semicolon and em-dash.
Em-dash: raises and lowers the narrative voice. When used in context of the narrator it raises the voice from the story the narrator is telling to the thoughts of the narrator, a second em-dash or the end of the paragraph lowers the voice back to the story the narrator is conveying. Lines starting with an em-dash lowers the voice to the character, dialogue.
Semi-colon: connects two or more independent clauses, it makes the clauses dependent on each other regarding meaning of the containing sentence and how it supports the paragraph that sentence is contained in. A full stop here would say they each support the paragraph independently, that they have no direct influence on each other but could have indirect influence through the paragraph.
continued because I don't feel like being productive at the moment and this gives the illusion of being productive.
Parenthesis: An aside, this does not support the paragraph directly but it is important and interesting, and it supports the greater idea, generally chapter or section or neighboring paragraphs.
Colon: an elaboration or explanation of what came before in the sentence, shows how what came before supports paragraph.
Comma: Same as semicolon but for linking an independent clause with a dependent clause.
Oxford Comma: Primarily a way to control flow/rhythm in lit prose and used as needed to clear up ambiguity
Single and Double Quotes: Dialogue and quotations, in prose if your characters are going to be quoting it is best to use single quotes or em-dashes for dialog so double quotes can be used for quotes literal and be consistent with how readers generally encounter literal quotations.
Full Stop. End of the sentence, what follows and precedes the sentence is only related by way of paragraph.
Question Mark and Exclamation Mark: Obvious for the most part, only nuance is that they are dual purpose and generally serve as full stop as well but can also serve as and of the other linking punctuation marks, context determines their secondary function.
I don't think that is arguable, colon is the ideal here and these examples are primarily examples in why prescription fails.
>Oxford Comma: Primarily a way to control flow/rhythm in lit prose and used as needed to clear up ambiguity
Eh, that was ambiguous. They are used as needed when having that "and" in there is good for rhythm and restructuring the sentence is not an option. Best to avoid situations where they could technically be used so that odd usage for rhythm is not inconsistent with overall usage. Restructure the sentence to avoid the need when rhythm is not restricted so you can use them when needed for rhythm without being inconsistent in your established use.
Arguably a full colon would be better than both in this example.
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Isn't em dash fancy comma?
"Grammarians are passionate about punctuation, that is, they have strong opinions about semicolons & em dashes."
Agreed.
Cormac McCarthy took the text down off the shelf and took his marker's pencil and crossed out the punctuation and slashed through the purple prosidy of the sickly children of cheap type and turned his head and spat. He sat his horse and looked out over the desert of punctuation the few periods casting long shadows like the afterbirth of a failed oestrus across the sonora plain. The kid said a hard season is coming and the man said back to him hard comin'll season a woman and the proof is in the blood that stains her thighs with your underborn son washed down them.
The em dash is the mark of the pseudo-intellectual. I’m sure we all know a person who cannot go three sentences without employing one. They believe it makes them look educated but in reality it is a microcosm of the decline of the English language. They think they look learned and eloquent when they use it instead of exposing them for the pathetic wastrels they are. A civilisation which uses the em dash as a marker of intelligence is doomed to fail. Heed this warning.
Semicolons, while utterly redundant and unnecessary, is more esoteric. Only people who read books published over fifty years ago even know of its existence, which makes it a good filter. However, do not use it. It adds nothing.
Em dashes are disgusting Judaic-Americano trash. En dashes with spaces on either side are the white man’s choice.
When used parenthetically. Otherwise semicolons are better, yes.