Lesson 428

Mechanics - Punctuation - Dashes

Use a dash to indicate a summarizing clauseA clause is a group of words having a subject and a verb.  Source: Lesson 246.

Example:
The house, the yard, the garage--they had remained untouched.

Dashes are used to give emphasis to written ideas and are typed by using two hyphens. They should be used sparingly.

 
 
 

Instructions: Use dashes where they are needed in the following sentences.

1. Kitchen, living room, bedrooms they were just as dirty as ever.

2. Oil, steel, wheat they were the backbone of industrialization.

3. Policemen, teachers, garbage collectors these are people that we cannot do without.

4. Cars, homes, businesses they were destroyed everywhere by the earthquake.

5. Families, jobs, hope these the war had nearly decimated everywhere.