Writers can misuse or overuse hyphens, em dashes, colons and, to some editors' disgust, semicolons. Using a period is a simple solution.

Writing coach and CUNY Journalism Press editor Timothy Harper tells us how to properly use ellipses, em dashes, and parentheses. FULL TRANSCRIPT: The default, typically, when we’re using ...

Do not use a hyphen in place of "to" or "through," except in dates. A dash is expressed as an "em dash" ( — ) in printing, is expressed in plain text as two hyphens ( -- ) and is used in place of a ...

EXAMPLE: 5–8 p.m. and 11 a.m.–2 p.m. NOT: 5 p.m.–8 p.m. or 11–2 p.m. En-dashes (option+hyphen) are used for ranges of time, dates and academic years. Em-dashes (option+shift+hyphen) are used for ...

Ah, the dash — the all-purpose punctuation mark. If you don't know what punctuation mark to use — you can't decide between a few, or you just have no clue — it's the one that seems like you ...

Saudi Arabia sold a whopping $12 billion in bonds last week, Mexico $8.5 billion and Chile more than $3 billion, along with Slovenia, Hungary, Indonesia, Estonia and a string of companies. Many of ...