If you’ve ever found yourself confused about the difference between a dash and a hyphen, and when to use a hyphen, you’re far from alone. When you handwrite them, they probably look exactly the same.
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More on hyphen and dash

Looking through some students’ scripts on Wednesday, I discovered there is a need to revisit the issue of the uses of the hyphen (-) and dash (—). Many still find it difficult to differentiate between ...
Hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes are frequently tested punctuation marks in government exam descriptive writing papers. Hyphens connect words, en dashes show ranges or relationships, and em dashes ...
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been giving this note to my editing clients: “Replace floating hyphen with proper em dash.” It comes up when I’m proofreading images, like PDFs, and I see a hyphen ...
"Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college," said Kurt ...
I don’t talk much here about the en dash — the little punctuation mark that looks like it can’t decide if it’s a hyphen or a full-fledged dash. There are a couple of reasons I avoid the subject. For ...
Law review style is to write number ranges using en dashes (–) rather than hyphens (-). I'd prefer if that wasn't the norm, but it is; and for the Journal of Free Speech Law, we decided to stick with ...