The Em Dash Is Having a Moment — and Most People Are Using It Wrong

The em dash is the most exciting punctuation mark in English and also the most abused one. Here is how to use it correctly — and when to use it at all.

Somewhere in the last five years the em dash became fashionable. Everyone is using them now — unfortunately, most of the new converts are using them in ways that blur their meaning.

Here is the em dash, correctly used: it creates a pause more emphatic than a comma but softer than a period. It sets off information — a qualification, a surprise, an aside — while keeping the reader in the flow of the sentence.

Four things an em dash does well

Introduces a surprising conclusion: "I tried everything — nothing worked." Sets off a prominent parenthetical: "The report — which nobody had read — was the basis for the entire decision." Marks an abrupt change: "The meeting was going well until — well, you know what happened." Signals an afterthought: "I sent the email — the wrong one, as it turned out."

What people get wrong

Using it as a general replacement for all punctuation. I see writers using em dashes instead of commas, colons, and periods, as if the dash were a multipurpose symbol for "pause here." It is not. Each punctuation mark has a specific register of emphasis.

Using multiple em dashes in one sentence. One set of paired dashes is about the limit. Two sets creates visual noise and makes the sentence feel frantic.

A practical test

When you reach for an em dash, ask: what punctuation would I use if being more conventional? If the answer is a colon or comma, use the em dash only if you want more emphasis than those marks provide. If you reach for it because you are not sure how to connect two ideas, restructure the sentence rather than punctuate it differently.

What this really means in practice

The practical question behind The Em Dash Is Having a Moment — and Most People Are Using It Wrong is not whether Writing Craft sounds impressive in theory. It is whether the advice survives contact with an ordinary draft, a busy inbox, a deadline, or a reader who is not already convinced. That is the standard I use throughout this guide: if a recommendation does not make the next draft clearer, faster, or easier to trust, it does not deserve space on the page.

Good English writing is rarely about sounding grand. It is about making the reader do less work. The strongest sentence usually has one job, one clear subject, and one clean movement from idea to consequence. When a paragraph feels heavy, the problem is often not vocabulary. It is that three different thoughts are trying to share one sentence.

A simple way to apply it today

Start with one small test. Take a real piece of writing connected to this topic, not a perfect sample made for a tutorial. Read it once for meaning, once for structure, and once for friction. On the first pass, ask whether the point is worth making. On the second, ask whether the order helps the reader. On the third, look for the exact sentence where attention drops. That sentence is usually where the improvement begins.

A practical editing habit is to mark the sentence that carries the point of each paragraph. If you cannot find that sentence, the paragraph is probably performing instead of communicating. Once the point is visible, you can cut decoration, move examples closer to the claim, and let the writing breathe.

Mistakes to avoid

• Do not optimize the wrong thing. A cleaner sentence is not always a better argument. Improve clarity without sanding away evidence, personality, or useful specificity.
• Do not compare tools or techniques in the abstract. Test them on the kind of writing you actually produce, because a student essay, a client email, a blog post, and a newsletter all punish different weaknesses.
• Do not let speed become the whole goal. Faster writing is valuable only when the final message is still accurate, considerate, and recognizably yours.

My working checklist

• Does the opening tell the reader exactly what problem is being solved?
• Can a busy reader understand the recommendation by scanning the headings?
• Is there at least one concrete example, not only general advice?
• Would I still stand behind this paragraph if a reader made a decision from it?
• Is the final version sharper without becoming colder?

Final verdict

The best version of this advice is deliberately practical: use Writing Craft to reduce uncertainty, not to hide from judgment. The page should leave you with a clearer next action, not just a stronger opinion. If you remember only one thing from this article, remember this: the winning choice is the one that improves the real writing in front of you.