When Should You Use an Em Dash vs. a Semicolon?
Punctuation choices matter. The right mark can sharpen your tone, drive home a point, and improve readability. But choose the wrong punctuation, and your sentence becomes disjointed or difficult to understand. Two of the most commonly confused punctuation marks are em dashes and semicolons, which serve distinct purposes. An em
dash is expressive and flexible, often used in creative writing to create a dramatic pause. In some cases, a pair of em dashes can be used together to interrupt a thought, as seen in this example from P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins (1934): "The same substance composes us — the tree...
