Grammar Friday - Emphasis & Give Books Blog Hop

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1.	Inksplasher (US)	7.	Maria Hoagland (US)	13.	K.C. Grant Writer's Corner (US)
2.	Jennifer Hurst (INT)	8.	The Last Word (US)	14.	Jennifer K. Clark (US)
3.	FALL (INT)	9.	Weaving a Tale or Two (US)	15.	Publish Novels or Bust (US)
4.	Geek Girl (INT)	10.	Tristi Pinkston	16.	Heidi Murphy (US)
5.	Heart on a Chain (INT)	11.	LDS Publisher (INT)
6.	Immortal Mine (INT)	12.	Carolyn Frank (INT)

Emphasis

Following are three sentences using commas, parentheses, or em-dashes to set off a portion of the sentence.

The supporters of the trade bill need the votes of three or more senators, the most likely ones to be won over are Smith, Jones, and White, if they are to get approval of the legislation.

The supporters of the trade bill need the votes of three or more senators (the most likely ones to be won over are Smith, Jones, and White) if they are to get approval of the legislation.

The supporters of the trade bill need the votes of three or more senators—the most likely ones to be won over are Smith, Jones, and White—if they are to get approval of the legislation.

Which is correct?

Source

They're all grammatically correct. As to which you should use depends upon your intent for the sentence and what you want to emphasize in it.

If you don't want to draw attention to the aside, commas would be a good option. Using the parentheses draws a little more attention.

Visually, if you really want to draw the reader's attention to the aside, you'd use the em dash because it really makes it stand out.

Bonus Question

And for that matter, what is an en dash or an em dash? Well, and en dash is basically the width of an "n" and and em dash is the width of an "m". Isn't it nice to know there really is some logic in all this? If you're interested in some nice examples of when and how to use dashes, there's a nice article here.

I have to confess that I interrupt myself all the time with asides, so they have a tendency to want to take over in my writing. Do you use dashes? Or are you a dash hater?