IreneMy favourite punctuation marks
June 17th 2008 17:31
The em dash - Not to be confused with the en dash or the hyphen, the em dash is twice the width of the en dash. People usually type it as two en dashes--like this. If you know the HTML code, you can make it typographically correct—like this. Em dashes are usually used parethetically, and are thus similar—and often interchangeable with—parentheses (which happen to be another favourite of mine).
Parentheses - This is my guilty pleasure and my indulgence. I overuse parentheses the way other people overuse ellipses and IM speak. It doesn't show up much in my blogs (unless I leave them in intentionally) because I'm so conscious of them and I excise them as often as possible.
The main difference in usage is that em dashes elevate the importance of the content between them, whereas parentheses reduce the importance:
It was in Paris (not in Arles) that I met your mother.
That I met your mother in Paris is more important than that I didn't meet her in Arles, which is almost beside the point.
It was in Paris—not in Arles—that I met your mother.
I want to emphasise that I didn't meet your mother in Arles.
The semicolon - Semicolons link independent clauses, and can be used to avoid comma splices. For me, semicolons possess a sort of elegance that no other punctuation marks have.
The interrobang (pictured above) - This is one mark people are likely to use but not know the name of. (The name's a portmanteau of "interrogative" and "bang".) A combination of question mark and exclamation mark, the interrobang is written with the exclamation mark first or vice-versa, depending on the writer, but I think it makes more sense to put the question mark first.
Usually an interrobang indicates that a question is asked in an excited, disbelieving, or otherwise agitated manner:
"Did you see what he wore to the Governor's Ball?!"
"What the blazes are you doing here?!"
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