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# The em dash and I
- URL: https://astrix-vellum.adrianoamalfi.com/the-em-dash-and-i/
- Published: 2026-07-22T13:37:38.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-22T14:09:39.000Z
- Description: A defence of the most misused mark in English, from someone who has drawn several hundred of them.
- Author: Priya Raman
- Tags: Type

The em dash is accused of being lazy — a comma that got ambitious, a colon without the commitment. I draw them for a living, and I think the accusation has it backwards.

✒️

A comma joins. A colon announces. An em dash interrupts — and interruption is a real thing that sentences do.

Used well it is the only mark that carries the sound of a thought changing direction mid-flight. Used badly it is a shrug. The difference is whether you needed the interruption or just could not decide.