When you’re writing by hand, a hyphen and a dash can look pretty similar, although the meanings differ. You might throw in a hyphen to link two well-known words or add a dash—for impact, of course.

Hyphenaters used to be fearless. Bad to the bone. Unflinching in the face of multi-word adjectives that required two or even three hyphens. An editor would see the terms “anti” and “social” and “media ...

People get hyped about hyphens. Hyphens are tricky creatures that can't be summed up in a few words. They are sometimes overused, other times underused. They follow a few rules then haphazardly ignore ...

For a skinny little thing that is 1,500 years old, the hyphen gets around. These days, where the hyphen goes — and where it is turned away — amounts to punctuation as sociology. A hyphen quiz: (1) ...

Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. During the recent gathering of the American Copy Editors Society, a lot of “hyphen” jokes made the rounds. One was “Why we ...

Yes, there is a real difference between a hyphen vs. dash. And here's how these tiny marks can make a big difference in your writing. When you’re writing by hand, a hyphen and a dash can look pretty ...