“’Hope’ is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –”
Emily Dickinson, a nineteenth-century poet, is perhaps the most famous proponent of dashes. She used dashes of all lengths to express breaks in her poems—almost none of which follow standard conventions. Historians and copyeditors have argued about how to understand her dashes for years.
Luckily for you, none of Dickinson’s various dashes will appear on the SAT. But dashes in other contexts are tested on the SAT writing section. Like commas, semicolons, colons, and apostrophes, dashes are part of the Standard English Conventions section of the SAT writing test. Questions in this section ask you to correct intentional grammar errors in the passages provided.
Learning a few quick grammar rules—including those about dashes—can help you move through the SAT writing test more quickly. Though there will likely be only a couple of questions on dash rules on the SAT, you never want to leave easy points behind.
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Dash Usage
Em Dashes (those about the length of the letter “m”, also simply called dashes) have three purposes. Shorter dashes, known as en dashes and hyphens, have other purposes that will be tackled below.
Two Dashes to Set Off Extra Information
Like commas and parentheses, dashes offset information that is not essential to the sentence, but provides extra information. Therefore, you should be able to remove the information contained by these commas, parentheses, or dashes without compromising the grammatical meaning of the sentence.
The car, which is on the street, needs a new tire.
The car (the one that’s falling apart) needs a new tire.
The car—the one she refused to take care of—needs a new tire.
“The car needs a new tire” is a perfectly grammatical sentence. The other information is “extra.” It might be essential to the meaning the author is trying to convey, but grammatically speaking, it is not necessary.
As you might have noticed with the examples above, there are differences evident in the “extra” information contained by commas, parentheses, and dashes. Much of that is a style choice made by individual authors (some authors love dashes, others use commas more). However, generally, parentheses “hide” information and dashes “expose” information. In other words, information contained by parentheses is the least crucial to the meaning of the sentence, and information contained by dashes is most important—or at least represents what the author most wants to emphasize.
In the above examples, I wanted to make it clear that she refused to take care of the car, and therefore imply that that was the reason it needed a new tire.
Dr. Evans—a noted scientist and educator—spoke at our commencement ceremony.
The Homecoming float—cobbled together with wire and nails—teetered dangerously down the street.
While these sentences make grammatical sense without the information contained by the dashes, we lose something crucial and meaningful without that extra information.
Dr. Evans spoke at our commencement ceremony. Who’s Dr. Evans? Why would she speak at a ceremony?
The Homecoming float teetered dangerously down the street. Why? That’s not the normal movement of a float! We are missing something meaningful here.
The most important thing to remember when identifying mistakes with dash usage on the SAT is that “extra” information must be framed by two commas, two parentheses, or two dashes. The information cannot be framed by one comma and one dash. You would never do this with parentheses, so remember that commas and dashes follow the same rule:
INCORRECT: The tree—which I chopped down myself, is now decorated in our living room.
CORRECT: The tree, which I chopped down myself, is now decorated in our living room.
INCORRECT: The new shoes—sparkling in their box, delighted him greatly.
CORRECT: The new shoes—sparkling in their box—delighted him greatly.
One Dash to Introduce Lists
Dashes can also be used to introduce lists, like colons.
Take down the decorations—the wreath, the lights, and the tree.
Dashes and colons that precede lists should not follow verbs.
INCORRECT: The things I need from the store are—bread, eggs, and milk.
CORRECT: Remember when you’re at the store—bread, eggs, and milk.
One Dash for Dramatic Pauses
To break a sentence, or indicate emphasis or drama, an author might use a dash by itself. Think of it like a comma with some extra oomph.
He loved dogs—but severe allergies prevented him from ever owning one of his own.
I told her to meet us at the fountain—at least I think I did!
Wait—I have the key right here.
A dash can also be used this way to convey breaks in dialogue.
“Just let me expl—” “No, I won’t let you explain,” she interrupted.
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The En Dash and the Hyphen
The em dash, which we examined above, is the most common kind of dash. As seen above, it separates phrases in sentences, introduces lists, or breaks up a sentence, indicating a dramatic pause.
The en dash, the length of a lowercase “n,” signifies a range of numbers or dates—replacing the word “to.”
From 1950-1955, she worked as a teacher.
I referred to pages 47-68 in the book.
Finally, the hyphen is the shortest of the dashes. Hyphens connect two or more words (adjectives, nouns, adverbs) when they come before a noun they modify as a single idea.
Red-haired girl
Three-year-old boy
End-of-June party
The girl is not “red” or “haired,” but rather “red-haired,” so we use a hyphen. Likewise, the boy is not a “three boy” or a “year boy” or an “old boy,” but a “three-year-old boy.”
Notice that there is no hyphen between the last adjective and the noun. We do not have “red-haired-girl,” but “red-haired girl.”
Hyphens are also used in formatting numbers, including fractions.
Thirty-one pairs of shoes
Ten-and-one-half-foot sign
For numbers over one hundred, only the numbers in the tens and ones place get hyphenated.
INCORRECT: One-hundred-twenty-two dollars
CORRECT: one hundred twenty-two dollars
When to NOT use a hyphen
Do not use a hyphen between two adjectives that modify a noun separately.
Shiny black car (The car was both shiny and black; there is no such thing as “shiny black.”)
Scruffy old cat (The cat was both scruffy and old; there is no such thing as “scruffy old.”)
Do not use a hyphen with adverbs that end in “ly.”
INCORRECT: Dimly-lit house
CORRECT: Dimly lit house
But, remember: not all words that end in “ly” are adverbs. Adjectives that end in “ly” do get hyphenated.
Friendly-looking dog (“Friendly” is an adjective that modifies the noun dog.)
Family-owned café (“Family” is a noun acting as an adjective to modify café.)
Do not hyphenate adjectives or adverbs that follow nouns. Hyphenate them only if they precede the noun.
The nice apartment is off campus.
The off-campus apartment is nice.
Do not use a hyphen with proper nouns that modify other nouns
INCORRECT: Academy-Award winner
CORRECT: Academy Award winner
Takeaways – Dashes on the SAT Writing
Dashes (em dashes) can be used in pairs on either side of phrases within sentences that are not essential grammatically.
One dash can be used to offset a word or phrase for extra emphasis.
One dash can be used to introduce a list.
Slightly shorter “en” dashes are used in place of the word “to,” as in
From 1840-1855
Hyphens connect words that act together to modify a noun.
If you come across a question about dashes on the SAT, don’t worry—these few simple rules are all you need to feel confident in your answer!
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