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Let me tell you—the em dash can be such a drama queen! It enhances the readability of a sentence and also keeps it less formal. It brings in interruptions to the flow of thought under the guise of being emphatic. What's worse? It’s quite easy to confuse the em dash (—) with a shorter en dash (–) or an even shorter hyphen (-). And when you mix these three up, the result is a bad (read as awkward) copy.

So, here’s an easy way to get rid of that confusion. Always remember that em dashes are commonly used to replace

• Parenthetical commas or parentheses which are usually used when a part of a sentence can be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence itself. (Tch. Tch. Too technical!)

For example, let's look at this sentence—Mars, named after the Roman god of war, is often called the Red Planet.

Now, go ahead and remove the text within the parenthetical commas to read Mars is often called the Red Planet.

Has this altered the meaning of the sentence? No. Well, that's the role of parenthetical commas. But should you want to add emphasis to the text within the parenthetical commas, then replace the commas with em dashes. Simple!

Mars—named after the Roman god of war—is often called the Red Planet.

What if the parenthesis is used at the end of the sentence, you ask? Simply apply a little common sense and use just one em dash instead of the opening parenthesis.

Take for instance the sentence, Earth is the planet we live on, the only planet which is not named after a Roman or Greek god.

Use an em dash instead and it will read Earth is the planet we live on—the only planet which is not named after a Roman or Greek god.

• Colons which are usually used when followed by an explanation or a list. In the case of the former, replace the colon with an em dash to add emphasis to the explanation. Voilà!

For example, take a look at this sentence—The sun is a star: it is a burning sphere of gases. The second half of the sentence is an explanation of the first. To make it emphatic, I only need to replace the colon with an em dash.

The sun is a star—it is a burning sphere of gases.

If I were to introduce a list of items, then here's how the sentences would read with a colon and an em dash respectively.

There are eight planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

There are eight planets in our solar system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

I hope you do know the rule to using a colon! (winks)

You also need to remember that

• Spaces don’t precede or follow an em dash but it doesn't necessarily have to be a rule of thumb.

• Usage of the em dash is restricted to two in a sentence for the sake of clarity. Nothing else, I promise.

• And did I mention that an em dash is less formal than a colon or comma?

Phew! Now you are all set to take over the drama queen.

*There are other uses of the em dash which we will look at in another post.