A dash is an indication of interruption formed by typing two
hyphens on your keyboard. Whether it is a long “em-dash”—or a
shorter “en-dash” – is determined by whether you leave a space
between the words and the hyphens. If you are using Microsoft
Word, the computer should automatically change the hyphens into
the dash. A hint: if you put a dash at the end of a sentence
followed by quote marks, the computer does not change the
hyphens into the dash, so you can “trick” it by typing a letter
after the hyphens and hitting the space bar. Then you backspace
and delete that extra letter. Some writers these days try to use
dashes to indicate pauses, instead of using the ellipsis (three
dots…) There are two major reasons to use a dash. 1. Dashes
should be used when someone’s dialogue is interrupted, such as:
“I told you I was going to—” John waved his hand to stop me.
“You always say that, but you never do it.” (The ellipsis would
be used if the speaker was trailing off: “I always thought I
would be…” Jane’s shoulder