The hyphen is the most common, as it is the only one of the three punctuation symbols that is included in modern keyboards. I do not know why that is the case, but it is sad that the other two are not included because they are very useful in certain situations! I commonly use both of them in my writing — as any careful readers of my blogs can attest!

Even in that last sentence, I used an em-dash! Let me explain the differences between the different dashes and when is the appropriate circumstances to use them.

First, though, let me say this: I think it is a common desire among most people to be understood. It can be immensely frustrating when other people don't grasp what we are trying to say ~or~ misunderstand what we say and jump to conclusions other than we intended. Yet, our writing can easily be misinterpreted if we are not careful with our wording, spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

I recall reading an ad on FB-Marketplace last year where a woman was trying to sell something. However, her ad was so poorly written, and rife with errors in spelling and grammar, that even after reading the ad five times, I still had no clue what she was trying to sell. No one else must have understood, either, because she re-posted the same ad a few days later and still garnered no interest at all.

People who sincerely care about being understood will never become agitated when errors are cited in their work. Those who do are either insecure about their own lack of knowledge, simply lazy, or perhaps don't really care to be understood. Personally, I appreciate when people catch something I missed and give me an opportunity to correct it. Hopefully, this post will assist those who truly care about presentation and clarity, and give you some alternatives to make your writing even easier to comprehend by anyone! 😊

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The Hyphen   -

As stated previously, this punctuation mark is on modern keyboards, so it is the most-used of all the dashes. It is also the shortest of all the dashes. Hyphens are used to join two closely related words, or words that should work together to form a single concept. Examples include: one-third, all-inclusive, and one-of-a-kind. Technically, the hyphen should only be used to link words in this manner. Even the word "hyphen" belies this intent, as the word comes from the Greek huphen which means "together." If we wish to link numbers, the en-dash is a better option.

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The En-Dash   –

The en-dash is so named because it is the width of the letter "n" in typesetting work and font design. The en-dash is helpful when writing a range of numbers, such as referencing multiple pages of a document (pages 17–23 to mean: all of the pages from 17 through 23). It is also helpful when referencing a range of other things, such as months. As expressed by the University of Chicago's publication "The Chicago Manual of Style:"

The en dash connects things that are related to each other by distance, as in the May–September issue of a magazine; it’s not a May-September issue, because June, July, and August are also ostensibly included in this range.

Another interesting example given by the "The Chicago Manual of Style"  involves the discussing of events prior to World War II. In this example, "World War II" is a compound noun which carries a significance of its own when the noun-turned-adjective "World" and the noun "War" and the ordinal "II" are used in sequence. If something happened prior to World War II, then the prefix "pre–" can be appended. However, if that prefix contains a hyphen, it would imply "pre-World," as in before the world existed. But, using the en-dash, the significance is shown to extend further to include the entire noun phrase: pre–World War II. In this example using the phrase "World War II," the distinction might seem trite, but in less common nominal phrases, it can certainly prevent someone from comprehending what is meant.

⭐️ You can get an en-dash by typing – within the body of your text where you wish the en-dash to be. NOTE: You will only see the en-dash when the code is rendered on a web page like your Steemit blog, etc.! You can also copy/paste it from this post and use it where you wish!

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The Em-Dash   —

The em-dash is the longest of the three, and so called because it is as wide as the letter "m" in typography. The em-dash is useful for delineating appositives or for providing breaks and supplemental information to a sentence. For example:

Beth — the oldest of the children — led the way.

Despite what "The Chicago Manual of Style"  says about not placing a space on each side of the em-dash, I feel that it looks much better to use a space on each side, so that is my own personal style. I think it looks much cleaner, and hope others will follow suit.

It is also useful when a character in a story has been interrupted in mid-sentence, as in: "I didn't mean to cause troub—".

The em-dash or the en-dash can also be handy in bulleted lists to create items beneath the bullets:

● Category (A)
    — Item 1
    — Item 2
    — Item 3
● Category (B)
    — Item 1
    — Item 2

⭐️ You can get an em-dash by typing — within the body of your text where you wish the em-dash to be. NOTE: You will only see the em-dash when the code is rendered on a web page like your Steemit blog, etc.! You can also copy/paste it from this post and use it where you wish!

It has become acceptable when writing on the Internet to use two hyphens in sequence -- like this -- to simulate an em-dash. That might be acceptable in casual circumstances, but I would definitely advise against it for formal work, or work which might be published.

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The NBSP     

In Summary...

Here is a sentence using all of the new things we learned today:

So now, everyone knows 1–4 new punctuation tricks — which are totally awesome — to make your Steemit posts stand head-and-shoulders above the rest!

 😊

SOURCES
   ¹ BrightHub.com: En Dash vs. Em Dash: When to Use Each
   ² University of Chicago: "The Chicago Manual of Style"