This mark is made by typing two hyphens back to back and is as wide as the M key on an old-fashioned typewriter. Having too many em dashes in your document can get confusing, so it is best to limit yourself to no more than two em dashes per sentence. The em dash is one of the most versatile punctuation marks in the English languages and can be used in place of other punctuation marks depending on the context they are used in. We are going to explain exactly what each of these dashes are and the proper way to use them within this post. The dash has two types, the em dash and the en dash.

When you think about punctuation marks, it is not often that your mind wanders to the dash.