Okay, Ive been looking up tutorials on how to break up my sentences(with little success), where I have a thought in the middle of one that is directly involved in the sentence, but is separate, like an off handed comment, or something you would need to put in the footnotes*. Rereading some of my Favorite best selling books(because dollars for donuts they should have better grammar then me ), I ran into a line from the Harry Dresden Files book, Grave Peril where they used a ' —' to do this.

"I get so sick of that," I said. "People like you and me stand up to things that these jokes" —I made an all encompassing gesture —"would never even dream existed."

Part one of my question is: is the above use of the dash used properly. Part 2 is, do you know any good tutorials/guides for using the dash? The ones Ive found haven't been all that clear, and I just want to be sure I am using this right before I start using it.

Thank you for any and all help, you guys area godsend.

*A footnote like this.

3746205

were I have a thought in the middle of one that is directly involved in the sentence

where I have a thought*

Grave Peril were they used a ' —' to do this

where*

Also, have you tried googling "em dash vs en dash"? There are plenty of resources on the first page.

3746222 Corrected, thank you.

3746205
Yes, that is an acceptable way of punctuating an action insert. It's the one recommended by the Chicago Manual of Style, as well as my personal preference. It also seems to be acceptable to put the dashes inside the quotations, but I don't have a reputable source for that.

The uses of em dashes to interrupt dialogue is, in fact, a correct means to breaking up dialogue. In that case, you would replace any dialogue tags with the action in em dashes as your example shows. I'll attach a couple good reference links down below for you to skim at your discretion. Hope this helped!

http://theeditorsblog.net/2010/12/08/punctuation-in-dialogue/
http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/em-dash.html

Thanks for all the help and reference links! This was really eating away at the back of my mind.

Seriously, thank you all.

Good references, everybody. I am still trying to learn the rules of grammar myself so that, I can work to have less mistakes in my writing. I am happy to say that I have learned a lot since when I first came here and I just recently learned that my library just has come up with a free online course for developing writing skills. Libraries are so awesome for free learning. Don't you all agree?

If you guys are interested by the way, I will post the link for the writing course, but I believe if you not using it through my library's system it does cost money to use the course. How my library got it set-up for free is beyond me because it's suppose to be a paid for online learning school.

3746205

Dashes come in two varieties: en, and em. En-dashes (– alt+0150) and em-dashes (— alt+0151) are interchangeable in narratives. The dash is versatile, sleek, and sexy and all around best punctuation (Most of these can also be said about the Dash). Different manuals of style will suggest different methods of spacing and have opinions on which dash to use. I prefer the look of em-dashes without spaces, but the most important thing is that you remain consistent.

The way you're citing above replaces commas in a parenthetical construction. Dashes can also replace, depending on the circumstance, semicolons, colons, periods, and I'm certain I'm forgetting something. You can use them exactly like a semicolon—they can correlate two related independent sentences. They can allow you to restate something—to reemphasize the important bit, or rephrase it. They can be used parenthetically—like parenthesis, but better—to allow you to put extra context in the middle of a sentence. And let's not forget their ability to that someone was cut—

And this is just a some of the dash's many uses.

Dash is best punctuation.

3746205
As 3746235 mentioned, there are two styles. The site's FAQ actually covers both. Personally, I like the control it gives me over how my characters are performing the actions, but I honestly haven't looked around for other sources too much.

In case this isn't touched on in the links provided -- whether you use an em or en dash, and whether or not you put spaces around them (spaced dash) or don't (unspaced dash) doesn't really matter. One style guide might prefer one way (spaced en dash) and one style guide might prefer another (unspaced em dash), while a popular author might prefer a third (spaced em dash) -- but the key word there is prefer. It's a matter of preference and opinion.

What is not preference or opinion is that whatever style you settle on, you must be consistent -- you can't mix styles throughout your work.

http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/em-dash.html This link(First provided above) has been a major godsend for me, being as it clearly states the uses for multiple forms of punctuation. Check it out, I spent like 2 hours on it last night.(Both links are great by the way.)

I'm not going to lie, when I saw the title, my mind went to Dash clop.

Still, great little guide here! Thanks for posting!