Photo: an example of proofreaders' marks for inserting a hyphen, an en dash, and an em dash. Most people use hyphens on a regular basis, but what about en dashes and em dashes? I didn't even know what they were until I went to university, and I wasn't familiar with how to use them until I took a grammar course for my Editing Certificate. So what are the differences between a hyphen, an en dash, and an em dash? Hyphen A hyphen is the shortest dash, and there is a key for it on

Oh, the dreaded semi-colon. I have heard people complain about using it since I was in high school. One of my teachers told us to avoid it altogether because no one ever used it correctly, and my university professors often discouraged students from using it as well. I have to confess, though, that the semi-colon is my favourite punctuation mark. I have a tattoo of a semi-colon on my wrist, although not because I'm such a grammar nerd (even though I am a grammar nerd). I got