Em dash short cut
Posted: 2017-06-15 10:46:33
I don't know if I'm particularly clueless, or if it's just taken me ten years to think of this...
the em dash, the long dash, used during scenes of tension, action, (There are better definitions for this. What I do is 1. look for explanations that include good examples like those in books I respect. I could teach a four credit grad level course in the punctuation of J.K. Rowling. 2. Every year or so I re-read these explanations learning that mostly I'm using them 'correctly' but I've missed some nuances.... and 3. Even as I mostly use them correctly, I still feel I'm never really sure... 4. Then I don't worry about it too much.)
The key command for an em dash is — Shift-Option (short dash). Shift-Option for me uses my pinkie and thumb UNDER my hand. I miss the keys alot. Makes me crazy. Also when I miss all kinds of other things happen. The font gets smaller.
Yesterday, duh! moment.
What would be easier? Treat it as a spelling correction like when hte is automatically corrected to the.
so I did this -- (two short dashes) is automatically corrected as <space> em dash <space>, which is how I use it. (Again I might be wrong about the spaces)
This is from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Whomping Willow.
>>Mr. Weasley glanced at his watch and then at his wife.
“Molly — ”
“No, Arthur — ”
“No one would see — this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed — that’d get us up in the air — then we fly above the clouds. We’d be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser — ”
“I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight — ” <<
[Like I said, J.K. Rowling has a lot of interesting punctuation. She'll go wild with ellipses or the em dash, and then she'll back off. I'm not complaining. The little details and quirks just make the stories that much more fun. Reading the Harry Potter books is time better spent than getting an English MFA. Maybe it should be J — K — Rowling —
the em dash, the long dash, used during scenes of tension, action, (There are better definitions for this. What I do is 1. look for explanations that include good examples like those in books I respect. I could teach a four credit grad level course in the punctuation of J.K. Rowling. 2. Every year or so I re-read these explanations learning that mostly I'm using them 'correctly' but I've missed some nuances.... and 3. Even as I mostly use them correctly, I still feel I'm never really sure... 4. Then I don't worry about it too much.)
The key command for an em dash is — Shift-Option (short dash). Shift-Option for me uses my pinkie and thumb UNDER my hand. I miss the keys alot. Makes me crazy. Also when I miss all kinds of other things happen. The font gets smaller.
Yesterday, duh! moment.
What would be easier? Treat it as a spelling correction like when hte is automatically corrected to the.
so I did this -- (two short dashes) is automatically corrected as <space> em dash <space>, which is how I use it. (Again I might be wrong about the spaces)
This is from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Whomping Willow.
>>Mr. Weasley glanced at his watch and then at his wife.
“Molly — ”
“No, Arthur — ”
“No one would see — this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed — that’d get us up in the air — then we fly above the clouds. We’d be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser — ”
“I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight — ” <<
[Like I said, J.K. Rowling has a lot of interesting punctuation. She'll go wild with ellipses or the em dash, and then she'll back off. I'm not complaining. The little details and quirks just make the stories that much more fun. Reading the Harry Potter books is time better spent than getting an English MFA. Maybe it should be J — K — Rowling —