things that are not an emdash:
text text – text text text
text text---text text text
you use it to divide or combine words. well-known. old-fashioned. when used to divide words, it's usually over a line break. when and how you should combine words is your extracurricular reading.
you use it for ranges of numbers, times, or dates. January 5 – February 10. 1:00 – 2:30. 3 – 4. you put spaces around an endash. Microsoft Word autocorrects space hyphen space to an endash, which is not always correct.
things that are an emdash:
-- is two hyphens in a row and can be used instead of an emdash in a pinch, but — is better, especially for any published writing.
Microsoft word autocorrects -- to — when you don't put spaces around it, but a lot of people don't know to use -- in the first place and end up with a wildly incorrect endash.
whether or not you put spaces around an emdash is up to your styleguide.
I deeply prefer Chicago style over everything else so I also prefer no spaces. if you're more of an AP style user, you might be more inclined towards spaces, because AP is incorrect about everything. if you've only ever used MLA, you are beyond my help. whatever APA or Bluebook are doing is none of my business.
in general, if you're writing fiction, it's better to stick to Chicago style, and that *is* an unbiased opinion. you can look up what the others are for if you like.
the most important thing is consistency: do it the same way every single time.
however, using spaces around an endash or hyphen that should be an emdash is always incorrect.
other persistently incorrect usage of an emdash:
how you use emdashes is another post entirely and is often a matter of personal style. more extracurricular reading. but you definitely need to use it when you're cutting off in the middle of dialogue, e.g.:
"Well, I don't really—"
"I do," said her friend, interrupting.
you should also learn when to use a semicolon vs. colon vs. emdash. they all serve different purposes. in general terms, an emdash is a more abrupt break in the sentence, but please use them on purpose, knowing exactly what they are.
and no more space hyphen space. I die a little inside every time. please.
the emdash is not on the keyboard. to easily get an emdash outside of Microsoft Fucking Word, use Get an Emdash. click the button and it will automatically be put on your clipboard for an easy copy/paste.
in my next post: I teach you how to write a styleguide for your fanfiction.
