Punctuation: yeah, apparently there are different ways to do it

With all there is for great literary minds to ponder–a beautifully scripted fourth century rendering of some forgotten Germanic lore, the hidden meanings within any Quentin Tarrantino vehicle, or how to reproduce the entire Old Testament on the head of a pin–why, oh why do they have to piss around with how a writer punctuates their writing?

I recently completed a critique for a good friend of mine, one who’s writing skills are very well-honed. During the course of my read-through of this piece, I noticed several occasions in which I thought their work was punctuated incorrectly–and I noted, repaired, then made a comment in the margin on the proper use of said punctuation.

I’ve only been punched in the junk with this one so far, but I’m sure there are probably more. By “this one,” I mean the em-dash (and to a lesser extent, the en-dash). This is a great weapon in any writer’s arsenal, but it can also be a fist-sized pain in the ass. Here’s one more reason why: There is now–and maybe always has been–a school of thought that states, “Hey, I want my em-dash to be pretty and flow, not stab into each word, holding them together like two lesbian porn-stars fighting for their share of a table leg. I want airy space on either side of the em-dash…

Okay, so here’s my issue: If this is an “accepted” form of the em-dash, then how do I know, when my manuscript hits the desk of Miss/Mr./Ms Big-time agent/editor, that I have the correct (to them) use of the em-dash (all three-hundred and forty-six of them) in place? In a situation such as this, I believe it would be only prudent to say, “What the f%*k?!”

The “Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation” has this to say:

Okay, so I didn’t see any examples in that explanation that stated it was ever okay to use spaces before or after an em-dash. So, moving on.

Aside from a few scattered “I choose to use the space” comments, my search has been fruitless thus far.

Here’s what Wikipedia had to say:

According to most American sources (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style) and to some British sources (e.g., The Oxford Guide to Style), an em dash should always be set closed (not surrounded by spaces). But the practice in some parts of the English-speaking world, also the style recommended by The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (due to the narrow width of newspaper columns), sets it open (separates it from its surrounding words by using spaces  or hair spaces (U+200A)) when it is being used parenthetically. Some writers, finding the em dash unappealingly long, prefer to use an open-set en dash. This “space, en dash, space” sequence is also the predominant style in German and French typography. See En dash versus em dash below.

In Canada, The Canadian Style [A Guide to Writing and Editing], The Oxford Canadian of Grammar, Spelling & Punctuation, Guide to Canadian English Usage [Second Edition], Editing Canadian English Manual, and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary are all defined NO SPACE before or after these Em Dash marks when they are inserted between words, a word and numeral, or two numerals.

Monospaced fonts (such as Courier) that mimic the look of a typewriter have the same width for all characters. Some of these fonts have em and en dashes which more or less fill the monospaced width they have available. For example, “- – — −” will show as a hyphen, en dash, em dash, and minus in a monospace font. Typewriters often only have a single hyphen glyph, so it is common to use two monospace hyphens strung together--like this--to serve as an em dash.

When an actual em dash is unavailable—as in the ASCII character set—a double (“–”) or triple hyphen-minus (“—”) is used.

Blah, blah, blah. But please notice there are no spaces present in their examples.

Alright! Now I’m getting somewhere. The Chicago Manual of Style says no. They are–in the eyes of North American publishers–the proverbial “shit,” when it comes to what “is” and what “isnt” in the editing world. They said this about differences of opinion in regard to spaces verses the Write Way:

CMOS does not utilize this method of spacing, either before or after an em dash. Nonetheless, even our own publications sometimes play with spacing for display purposes, and some typefaces impose more space than others. In this matter, as in most style matters, if Chicago’s preferences don’t suit your purposes, work around them. We won’t be offended.

See any spaces in the following sentences? These were the examples given by CMOS. 

“Will he–can he–obtain the necessary signatures?” asked Mill.

“Well, I don’t know,” I began tentatively. “I thought I might–”

“Might what?” she demanded.

Yeah, I didn’t see any spaces either.

This point I started out trying to make seems to come down to a matter of choice. There are many advocates for a spaced out     em    dash    , but their reasons for doing so (seemed to) have nothing to do with any sort of edict, and everything to do with how pleasing to the eye the spaces were. Even CMOS states that anyone can use what they wish (even though they do NOT recognize this recent (1960′s)phenomena of spacing before and (or) after the em dash).

So, here it is:

You can either chose to use spaces, or you can do it the Write Way. Your choice. If you think I’m Wrong, then prove it; post a reply with your proof. Until then, I’ll keep using my em dash The Write Way (or until someone who’s paying me large sums of cash says otherwise).

Now, whether I use the em dash properly (as in: the proper context), well. . . That’s a whole other bucket of maggoty fish bait, ain’t it?

Later