When we're writing, we can add extra words to a sentence to give more information or explanation. We call the extra words that have been added a parenthesis. Parenthesis is a word or clause inserted ...

Dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster has compiled information on the usage of the em dash (—), en dash (–), and hyphen (-) in English writing. Em dashes function like commas, colons, or parentheses ...

In the video from The New Yorker’s YouTube channel, Comma Queen Mary Norris breaks down the rules for all three dashes. They hyphen is the shortest mark and is used for making compound words (like ...

Novelist Cormac McCarthy has spent twenty years editing what feels like the opposite of a novel: scientific papers by faculty members and postdocs at the Santa Fe Institute. Some of the scientists he ...

A debate surrounds the em dash, dubbed the 'ChatGPT hyphen'. Gen Z and social media users link it to AI content. However, literary figures like Jane Austen used it too. Its presence in AI stems from ...

This is an excerpt from Post copy editor Bill Walsh’s monthly Grammar Geekery chat, which takes place the first Tuesday of each month. Chatters wanted to explore the many punctuation marks that ...