Claims Quote by Bergen Evans

A dash is a mark of separation stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses.

— William Strunk, Jr

The dash helps to indicate that the two thoughts are intimately related, and it's less stodgy than a semicolon, which would have performed the…

— Bill Walsh

What the semicolon's anxious supporters fret about is the tendency of contemporary writers to use a dash instead of a semicolon and thus precipitate…

— Lynne Truss

“What the semicolon’s anxious supporters fret about is the tendency of contemporary writers to use a dash instead of a semicolon and thus precipitate…

— Lynne Truss

The reason it's worth standing up for punctuation is not that it's an arbitrary system of notation known only to an over-sensitive elite who…

— Lynne Truss

RHETORIC The art of making life less believable; the calculated use of language, not to alarm but to do full harm to our busy…

— Ben Marcus

From the reader's point of view, punctuation provides a map for one who must otherwise drive blindly past the by-ways, intersections, and detours of…

— Mina P. Shaughnessy

A dash derives from "to dash," to shatter, strike violently, to throw suddenly or violently, hence to throw carelessly in or on, hence to…

— Eric Partridge

Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.

— Lynne Truss

“The punctuation mark that best describes me as a person is the dash. But for Mark Question, it would probably be the question mark.…

— Jarod Kintz

“Punctuation comes from the Latin root punctus, or “point.” Those funny dots, lines, and squiggles help writers point the way. To help readers, we…

— Roy Peter Clark

“White encouraged Updike’s equally scrupulous commitment. They bonded over dashes, colons, and commas—most amazingly in an exchange of letters in the last two months…

— Adam Begley