Booher's Rules of Business Grammar - Dianna Booher 2009

Make a dash for it
Miscellaneous matters

DISTINCT USES FOR HYPHENS AND DASHES

A dash is not a hyphen on steroids. These two marks have drastically different duties.

Hyphens punctuate words:

They link prefixes and suffixes to root words. (self-control, ex-president, globe-like)

They link smaller words to make compound words. (go-between, powers-that-be, maids-of-honor)

They link related adjectives before nouns. (high-impact logo, four-day seminar)

Dashes, on the other hand, punctuate sentences. They make a detour from the main point of the sentence to an aside, an interrupter. If the interrupting comment comes in the middle of the sentence, use two of them—before and after the detour—like a set of parentheses.

If a hyphen is what you need (word punctuation), use this mark: -.

If a dash is what you need, here’s the proper symbol—the mark here inside this sentence. Notice that a dash is twice as long as a hyphen and that there’s no space before or after it. The words on both sides are flush left and right.

Memory tip

Hyphenate words. Use dashes to punctuate sentences.