The Danger of the Em Dash

When I write, I use em dashes. A lot. At one point in my career, my creative director returned an article to me in which I’d used an em dash in EVERY SINGLE PARAGRAPH of a 700-word article.

Clearly, I had a problem.

Em dashes (or the long dash, like this: — ) are remarkable little devices that allow you to stop the flow of a sentence and redirect it elsewhere.They also can let you set off a thought in the middle of a sentence, not unlike how you’d use parentheses. Only, with an em dash, it’s not a sidebar thought; it has a little more weight and importance. Em dashes also make handy replacements for semi-colons (if your 9th grade English teacher made that handy little punctuation mark seem too difficult to be bothered with).

And here’s why I believe I have my problem with em dashes: I often think as I am writing. And I think a lot faster than I write. And sometimes, before I’m even done with one thought, I’m onto the next one. But because I can’t filter my thoughts too well, I will actually interrupt myself in writing.

This is embarrassing. Interrupting myself when I talk? That’s just how I roll. But interrupting myself in text? That’s just silly, and it smacks of bad editing.

If you find yourself over-using the em dash as I do, chances are we’re both half-explaining something before abandoning it to explain a pre-requisite. In other words, our organization is probably crap. Perhaps, instead, try to re-cast the paragraph in the more logical order*.

And then, hopefully, you too will be able to write an entire blog post without a single** em dash.  

* If you’re ever trying to write something to confuse the reader, use lots of em dashes. Start and stop thoughts willy-nilly. In dialog, this is a great way to imply the speaker is scattered.

** That example em dash from the third paragraph doesn’t count, you freakin’ blog Nazi. Besides, look at it! It’s an emoticon. See? Colon + Em Dash + Right Paren = smiley face. Jeez, do I have to over-explain every joke? (No. Just the bad ones. -Ed.)