Do Writers Speak? ๐
The Secret Voice Hidden in Hyphens and Dashes!
#newspaperinlearning #artofwriting
18th April 2026
We’ve all been told that professional speakers and orators have a unique “voice” of their own, ain’t we? ๐
We can sense their unique ‘voice’ through the tone of their speech, the clarity of their speech, and the pacing of their speech, ain’t we?
However, quite interestingly, the same applies to professional writers as well!
Seasoned writers across the ages – as you would have known – have always relied heavily on three important kutty-little lines – the hyphen, the en dash and the em dash, for expressing the tone, the pacing and the clarity of their writing!
In other words, the hyphen and the dash give a writer their unique “voice”.
Before we proceed, have this mantra in mind - ๐
The Hyphen Unites! The Dash Divides!
Or
The Hyphen Glues, the Dash Disrupts!
So why do writers use the Glue and the Disruptor?
Writers use hyphens and dashes to prevent their readers from getting confused. Without hyphens, sentences can easily become ambiguous or even hilarious!
Consider the difference between a man-eating shark (a shark that eats humans) and a man eating shark (a guy sitting at a seafood restaurant eating a shark). The hyphen clarifies exactly how the words relate to each other.
The Em Dash (—), called so, since it has the width of the letter ‘m’) is used largely by the American publishing industry. Writers simply love it because it is incredibly versatile and breaks the rigid rules of formal grammar to create a more conversational tone.
Think of the em dashed words as side notes that shout! Yes, the em dash always demands attention!
The girl—who is wearing a red hat—is waiting to meet you.
Parentheses marks always whisper gently to the reader (“by the way, here is a side note”). Em dashes shout the side note shamlessly! ๐
As regards the en dash, many style guides outside the US prefer using an en dash with a space on either side to do the exact same job as the American em dash. Writers use it for the same dramatic pauses and interruptions, but it looks slightly cleaner and less cluttered on the page.
Globally, the unspaced en dash is the standard way to represent a range, meaning “up to and including.” Writers use it to quickly bridge numbers or related concepts.
Example: Read pages 10–25. (Instead of “10 to 25”).
Example: The New York–London flight.
In this article from today’s Times of India, you can observe that, almost all of the red circles and boxes in the image (except one) highlight spaced en dashes.
The author has used hyphens and dashes to create a conversational tone. The dashes here are used to inject sudden thoughts, add emphasis, or expand on a point without ending the sentence.
As we discussed earlier, in this article, unlike dashes, which separate parts of a sentence to create a pause, hyphens are used to glue words together!
The next easy mantra to remember, would be –
Hyphens hook words together. Dashes drive them apart!
Examples of hyphens hooking words together -
I bought a second-hand car.
She is a well-known author.
Raju likes sugar-free coffee!
Japan has high-speed trains!
Examples of Dashes driving apart words!
We had everything we needed for the camping trip—except the tent!
After three days of intense birding, we finally saw it—the Malabar trogon!
The student—who had never studied a day in his life—somehow passed the examinations.
Now, I’d love to have you go through these circled and boxed news articles from today’s English-language newspaper, to see and observe for yourself, the hyphens that hook, and the dashes that divide sentences! Here’s wishing y’all happy reading!
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