: Re: Eliminating the Dash in Prose Writing I have been accused — shock, horror — of using the dash (the one that indicates a three-quarters pause) too much in my fiction. Thing is — I quite

@Karen856

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I feel you, friend. I tend to overuse the dash just as you do.

The dash – much like other punctuation – will be used to try and influence the way a sentence is spoken. You might have a certain rhythm in mind when writing a sentence and want to enforce that by using a dash – especially to divide sentences into different sections.

In my opinion, that's where the problem is: people reading your sentence might want to read and structure it differently and might be put off by your trying to influence their reading habits.

That being said, I still use it abundantly in my writing – being aware of the problem but seeing it as a matter of personal style. And if you really want to get rid of the dashes, just use commas or semicolons instead!

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