Dashes ( - )
Used for 3 reasons:
o
to introduce an explanation
EX:
William Wordsworth-an 18th century poet-encouraged readers to look at nature to
understand life.
o
to show an abrupt change in thought or a pause within a sentence
to separate a series elements from the subject pronoun in a summarizing
statement
o
EX:
Hills, trees, daffodils, stars- these are some of the natural images in "I Wandered Lonely
as a Cloud."
Practical application:
-Replace excess words in a sentence
-Avoid comma splices
-Useful when writing poetry or dialogue for a short story or script