Dashes

DASH – (an informal mark of punctuation used for stylistic effects)
USES:
1) Set off a word or group of words introduced unexpectedly.
EX: That looks like smoke coming from – help! Fire!

2) Abrupt breaking off of one thought into another, or the discovery of an unexpected thought or idea.
EX: When you see Ann—here she comes—act as if nothing had happened.
You drink Brawls—you do, don’t you?—you’ll love Spike; it has 33,333% of daily B12.
From Eudora Welty: “Powerhouse is not a show-off like the Harlem boys, not crazy—he’s in a trance; he’s a person of joy.”

3) Use a dash to separate two identical or almost identical words.
Ex: I can do the job—the job of gangstering the Brady Bunch.
Dole and Nixon—these men where his idols.

4) Use a dash before a list that explains in detail some word or phrase in the first part of the sentence.
EX: Bring some romantic item—among other things roses, champagne, and candles.

5) Many authors use the dash as a method of a pause when a character is speaking. An example from Rudolph Fisher’s “Common Meter” exists: “Oh, her got her the job, did he?—Well, I’m going to fix it so she won’t need any job.”

6) James Joyce uses the dash instead of quotations.
--O, Mr. D’Arcy, cried Mary Jane, it’s downright mean of you to break off like that when we were all in raptures listening to you.