Quote:
Originally Posted by Alyssa Miranda
First I'd like to correct a glitch in my previous post in which I said a dash is needed between "freshly" and "opened" when a hyphen was intended. As to when to use a dash, stylistically I can think of at least two instances - to provide emphasis - or to vary the flow of the narrative, much like you do when you alternate between using long and short sentences. Beyond that, when to use it I think is something you more or less unconsciously absorb by reading the work of others. At the risk of getting too far into the weeds, there is a formatting issue associated with the use of the dash, however - either to set it off with spaces before and after, as it has been in this post, or treat it as if it were a long hyphen, with no space before or after the dash.
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You raise several issues. First, the general rule in American English (it may be different in British, Canadian, Australian or other variations of English, which is why I specify) is that adverbs ending in ly followed by a participle or adjective, regardless of whether they precede or follow a noun, are never hyphenated. The fundamental reason is because there is no likelihood of misunderstanding.
The best resource I know of for hyphenation issues is
The Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition's hyphenation guide found in section 7.85 beginning on page 374. FWIW, the rules are parroted in other style guides, such as The Gregg Reference Manual; that is, there is little controversy about the rules in American English. Having said that, newspapers (and some magazines) in America tend to follow different grammar rules for some reason, and increasingly hyphenation of ly words is seen in newspaper articles.
Second, you refer to using the dash for emphasis. The dash is not an emphasizing tool. (BTW, which dash are you referring to? The en-dash and the em-dash are the most commonly used dashes, but there are others.) It is used to set off explanatory phrases, so that it is clear that the set offs are unnecessary to the sentence but helpful to the reader. You could, in most cases, use phrases like "such as" or "for example" or "that is" to accomplish the same purpose. Emphasis is generally done by italicizing or bolding (usually the former) a word or phrase.
Third, as for spacing, the general typesetting rule is that there is no spacing around a dash. However, unlike many rules, this one is broken more often than not. I personally prefer spacing around an en- and em-dash because it makes it much clearer to the reader that what follows/precedes is an offset. In the case of the en-dash, I think the spacing is important also because the en-dash is used in hyphenated phrases that include compound adjectives, e.g., non-anti-inflammatory, where the "hyphen" between non and anti should be an en-dash and should be closed up (I can't figure out how to make an en-dash here, so you have to imagine it
).
Hope this helps.