Dash away, dash away, dash away all - Miscellaneous matters

Booher's Rules of Business Grammar - Dianna Booher 2009

Dash away, dash away, dash away all
Miscellaneous matters

DASHES VERSUS WELL-ORGANIZED SENTENCES

E-mails like the following example look like a brain dump, with the writer not having taken the time to sort main ideas from supporting detail. The reader has to do all the work.

Beulah Buchanan was in my office last week—she’s the manager I mentioned who had experience as a project manager—and we discussed the big challenge brewing in Atlanta—whether you consider it a challenge or not, I certainly do. She and her staff are perfectly willing to allocate resources to help—they have several experienced specialists they can devote to the team—I think you met Tula, Weese, and Gertrude when you were here last month—they think they can find the financial contributors as well—that of course would be subject to senior management approval.

Organized:

Beulah Buchanan, the manager I mentioned who had experience as a project manager, was in my office last week. We discussed what I consider the big challenge brewing in Atlanta. She and her staff are perfectly willing to allocate resources to help, and they have several experienced specialists (Tula, Weese, and Gertrude, whom you met last month) they can devote to the team. They think they can find the financial contributors as well. Those contributors, of course, would be subject to senior management approval.

Dashes should never substitute for a well-organized sentence. Instead, they serve a good purpose: Dashes highlight what’s between them or what follows them.

(Note: While we’re on the subject of dashes, a question that pops up frequently in our grammar workshops is this: What’s the difference between parentheses and dashes? Parentheses downplay what’s inside them, while dashes do the opposite. Dashes highlight what follows or falls between them. In the above rewritten passage, parentheses around the names of the specialists downplay their names. Dashes around their names would highlight specifically who they are.)

Memory tip

A little dash of dashes will do it. Sort the main ideas from the trivial so your reader doesn’t have to.