this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
421 points (97.9% liked)

Funny

10840 readers
318 users here now

General rules:

Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The two dominant style guides in the U.S. (Chicago Manual of Style and the A.P. Stylebook) prescribe no spaces around em dashes. When I do professional writing I default to Chicago, so I learned to eventually omit spaces around em dashes. That's still my main way of distinguishing myself, for now.

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Oh it's interesting! In French typography (which I use in English if I don't know this language's rule), there's a normal space between the main text and the dash, and a non-breaking space between the dash and the inclusion. But I may turn to Chicago, now that I know that.

[–] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 days ago

The different style guides are designed for their particular environments. Most American newspapers and magazines follow AP, but most book publishers follow Chicago. Academics in the humanities tend to follow MLA, while academics in the social sciences tend to use APA. Hell, IEEE has a style guide for electrical engineers.

So do whatever you prefer. I tend to use Chicago because that's what I know best, but I have worked professionally in writing and editing publications that followed the Chicago rules.

[–] lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

I would advise against it — I think it looks stupid.