Over the next several columns, we'll consider three punctuation marks that look alike but have very different functions: the hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash (or, as some sources call them, the "en-dash" and the "em-dash").' This month, we focus on the shortest of the three: the hyphen ( - ). Sitting on your keyboard, the tiny hyphen seems innocent enough. But legal-writing sage Bryan Garner cautions that "[a]part from the comma, the hyphen gives writers more trouble than any other punctuation mark."
Citation
Joe Fore, Hyphens, En Dashes, and Em Dashes (Part I), 72 Virginia Lawyer 54 (April, 2024).