Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!yale!leichter
From: leichter@CS.YALE.EDU (Jerry Leichter)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: em-dashes
Message-ID: <65741@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 7 Jul 89 18:58:00 GMT
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Organization: Yale Computer Science Department, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
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X-from: leichter@CS.YALE.EDU (Jerry Leichter (LEICHTER-JERRY@CS.YALE.EDU))

Scott Horne makes a number of responses to my comments on spacing around
em-dashes.  I think there's little to be gained by answering point by point,
since at least some of what both of us have said is clearly taste, and we
disagree, and other could be debated forever (is an ellipsis really more of
a "semantic break" than a dash?  I think I could find examples supporting
either side of the argument.)

As to whether to tie the em-dash to the preceeding word:  I should think that
depends on meaning.  In a heading, the dash might look a lot better at the
beginning of the following line than lost at the end of the previous one.  The
title of my disseration is of the form "Description -- Explanation", and when
broken as

	Description
	-- Explanation

makes more sense, since it makes "Explanation" a kind of subitem.  Or, again
-- here's an example -- perhaps it looks better if you can see the entire
"dashed off" section on one line, rather than leaving a lone dash at the end
of the previous.  In summary:  I think you have to decide this on a case-by-
case basis.  (In fact, NEITHER is particularly good, and except where they
are really unavoidable, as in some headings, I view linebreaks at em-dashes as
something to fix up during proofreading.)

In any case, I mentioned in my posting that I had seen examples of typography
with spaces around em-dashes, but that I couldn't name any off-hand.  Well, it
turns out that I had an example sitting right beside me - but I didn't notice
it until today.  Take a look at the New York Times.  It uses a significant
amount of space around em-dashes.  It's difficult to tell exactly how much,
but it looks very much like an inter-word space to me.
							-- Jerry