As a nice coda to yesterday’s post, Liam Proven offers this bit of heresy:
I became a double-hyphener years ago and it’s a hard habit to break.
But while the em-dash *is* great — let’s do it the British way, with a respectful amount of space around it. Not that squeezed-up, spaceless American one, rudely shoving up against the words on either side. https://t.co/p11CxdEFZD
— Liam Proven (@lproven) December 3, 2021
Spaces around em-dashes? Reason enough to split from Great Britain.
Actually, this is interesting. I didn’t realize em-dash spacing was a British/American thing. I sometimes see spaces around em-dashes and it always looks wrong to me. It seems like it negates the whole purpose of the dash. Of course, it’s not a moral question. Folks are free to put spaces around the em-dash if they like. Even if it is blasphemous.