The en dash is used inconsistently within lots of writing – regardless of how 'professional' the writers are. The hyphen, em dash and en dash are everywhere, but most of us don’t know when or why to …
What Does Nonplussed Mean?
The word nonplussed has a different meaning than many people think. Nonplussed seems to be taking on an entirely new meaning simply because it is misused so often, by so many writers. Often, you …
Type an n-dash or m-dash on a tablet, iPhone or Android phone
Punctuation on a smartphone is a problem sometimes. As a result, many people almost give up on punctuation when they use Twitter and other online tools that are most often used from a mobile …
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The difference between a dash and a minus sign
A reader asked about the difference between a minus symbol and an N-dash (thanks Tem). I had to do a bit of homework on this. Unicode (the standard for electronically encoding text information) …
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Using the semicolon with conjunctive adverbs like ‘however’
Using words like 'however' within a sentence sometimes seems clunky and can make sentences hard to read. 'However' is a conjunctive adverb. Using a semicolon with conjunctive adverbs makes reading …
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Insert an n-dash or m-dash on a web page or blog
After writing about the n-dash and m-dash, I was surprised to find this is a very popular topic. A reader asked for details about how to insert an n-dash or m-dash on a web page or blog. It is …
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