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To bring some activity to this community beyond the writing club, here's a guide on how to use dashes and hyphens. Do you use these in your own writing?

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[-] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 hour ago

I have the answer: do you want a dash? Type a dash.

Which one? Idk, it's on the keyboard, do I look like I have the fucking time for three different kinds of dashes?

They're little lines, and you're alive now, not forever. Do the right thing and don't give a fuck.

[-] speedingcheese@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

Totally overuse em dashes! I have to edit out a lot of them.

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago
[-] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 points 21 hours ago

idgi, is it like an llm thing?

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago

There was a post a while back claiming only bots post using em dashes.

[-] dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I love the emdash—I use it all the time! And ofc I always use an endash to denote ranges. My first name is hyphenated too

[-] Mac@mander.xyz 2 points 14 hours ago

So do i—the emdash is one of my favorite characters. I never use the endash, though.

[-] cirrokumulus@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 day ago

Nice! Do you ever use two hyphens together in the place of an em dash?

[-] dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

On macos I know how to insert them using opt+hyphen (endash) and shift+opt+hyphen (emdash). I need to figure out how to get that on linux. Thankfully I think obsidian renders -- and


as en dash and em dash so I use them in my notes, and typst does as well.

If I can't easily do it I'll usually use -- in place of an emdash and I'll just use a hyphen for where I'd use an endash.

I also just know the html code by heart so in placesi can use html like in markdown I'll just use – and — (yeah... they remove the leading e to make it shorter haha)

[-] cirrokumulus@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago

thank you. This is really useful information :)

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

a dash here
a dash there
spice up your life

this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
29 points (100.0% liked)

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