QT 7 – Excuse Me—I Need to Interrupt Myself!
Hey everyone, it’s 2-Minute Tuesday and another QuickTake with Cate on all things writing in under two minutes.
You know how it is: There you are writing happily away, minding your own business, when suddenly something pops into your head, something intriguing, something that’s got to be said NOW, something that makes you—midsentence—interrupt yourself.
It happens to the best of us, the need to insert supplemental or parenthetical information, to interject details, to add an aside. But how do we interrupt ourselves—and the reader—politely? We have three punctuation marks designed for just that purpose: commas, dashes, and parentheses.
For example, we can write this sentence all three ways:
- Westley, the man in black, had not the least idea that he was racing dead into the Fire Swamp.
- Westley—the man in black—had not the least idea that he was racing dead into the Fire Swamp.
- Westley (the man in black) had not the least idea that he was racing dead into the Fire Swamp.
(Poor Westley! We’d better not leave this story for long!)
Let’s look at dashes first. These are em-dashes. They are much longer than the hyphen and take no spaces around them. Dashes are like a shout. They draw attention to the supplemental information. No one likes to be shouted at, so don’t overuse them.
Parentheses do the opposite. They are like a whisper. Imagine them as your hands cupping your mouth to whisper to a friend. Just as constant whispers begin to distract and annoy your friend, so also do too many parentheses.
The most natural punctuation mark for enclosing supplemental information is the pair of commas. Think of a pair of commas as parentheses that have been turned in the same direction and cut in half. Again, though, too many of them can create a choppy effect.
But what of poor Westley? We’ve left him racing into the Fire Swamp!
Remember, never let an interruption, no matter how polite, take you away from the story!
The rest of the story:
Since both em-dashes* and parentheses interrupt the flow of the sentence, be careful not to overuse them. To avoid a choppy effect, consider removing the supplemental information altogether or placing it in a separate sentence.
Use punctuation according to the placement of the supplemental information. If the supplemental information interrupts a sentence, use a pair of commas, a pair of em-dashes, or a pair of parentheses. If the supplemental information comes at the end of the sentence, the end punctuation mark—usually a period—will close it out.
*Em-dashes take no spaces before or after them.
Examples:
- The horse’s name was “Horse” (Buttercup was never long on imagination) and it came when she called it, went where she steered it, did what she told it.
- He lived in a hovel out near the animals and, according to Buttercup’s mother, he kept it clean.
- This was their thirty-third spat of the day—this was long after spats—and he was behind.
- Buttercup rolled around in bed. And there simply was no other way of explaining that look—she was interested.
Your turn: What punctuation marks work best in these sentences, and where should the go? (Answers below.)
- Mary Poppins takes charge of the Banks children Jane, Michael, and the twins and changes their lives forever.
- “Why is he called Mr. Wigg does he wear one?” asked Michael.
- Suddenly his elbow knocking against the inkpot upset it.
- The Red Cow that’s the name she went by. And very important and prosperous she was, too so my Mother said.
Answers:
- Mary Poppins takes charge of the Banks children—Jane, Michael, and the twins—and changes their lives forever.
- “Why is he called Mr. Wigg—does he wear one?” asked Michael.
- Suddenly his elbow, knocking against the inkpot, upset it.
- The Red Cow—that’s the name she went by. And very important and prosperous she was, too (so my Mother said).