Dashes

A dash is used to set apart parenthetic elements or to show spans. A dash is different from a hyphen (which links compounds).

Our style is to use the spaced en dash (–) for parenthetic elements. An en dash (also known as an en rule) is about twice the length of a hyphen and corresponds to the width of the letter ‘n’ within its own font.

The spaced en dash is composed of an en dash with a space either side, as per the example below.

"The first time Jane saw the Quadrangle – and she had seen many grand buildings in her time – she was impressed."

In Microsoft Word, the en dash can be found by going to the ‘Insert’ menu, choosing ‘Symbol’ and then clicking on the Special Characters tab. Alternatively, Word automatically substitutes an en dash whenever two hyphens are typed in succession (provided there is a space on either side of the double hyphen).

A longer dash, the em dash (—), is used in more formal publications, although its use is less common now than in the past. It is twice the length of an en dash, and corresponds to the width of the letter ‘m’ within its own font. It is used without spaces on either side. For example:

"We went far away—far away from the demands of city life—to write up our research."

A closed en dash (one without the spaces before and after) is used to substitute for the word "to" in a specified range, for example, the Sydney–Hobart yacht race, or 1988–89.

An en dash should not be used with the words ‘from’ and 'between', for example, "the period between 1970–90" should be written as "the period between 1970 and 1990".