I Learned Something About Em Dashes

I’m not going into the proper use of em dashes (you can find that on Wikipedia and other places. But I did learn something new.

You’re not supposed to put spaces on either side of an em dash. E.g., “I called my friend John—he was always good for a laugh—and told him what happened.”

But a lot of Web sites do, including USA Today where my column appears. I asked my editor (who’s almost as picky as I am about these things) and she said it was just their style even though it’s technically incorrect.

But wait! I found the real reason you do put spaces around em dashes on the Web. It’s because most browsers don’t break lines properly, and will keep long phrases together instead of breaking before or after a dash. By putting spaces around them, you allow them to display properly if they appear at the end of a line.

Of course!