Dash With Appositives Far Removed, Noun Clauses, or After a Short Sentence
The Dash
Rulebase Summary
When an appositive is used to rename a word that is very far removed from it, use a dash before the appositive or a pair of dashes around it to clarify the connection. When the appositive is a noun clause, use the same dash treatment. When an appositive renames the subject of the sentence and comes after the sentence has finished (even when the sentence is short), use a dash before the appositive.
Examples
A. The woman who had been sitting in the lobby for over an hour waiting for her appointment, Mrs. Dawson, finally spoke to the receptionist.
A. The woman who had been sitting in the lobby for over an hour waiting for her appointment -- Mrs. Dawson -- finally spoke to the receptionist.
Dashes reconnect a far-removed appositive.
A. That was his biggest concern, that the documents had been altered.
A. That was his biggest concern -- that the documents had been altered.
Dash before a noun-clause appositive at end of sentence.
Transcript Notes
The farther an appositive is from the word it renames, the more likely it needs dashes for clarity. Another consideration is whether commas might cause confusion — for instance, when an appositive at the end of the sentence could be mistaken for a noun of direct address. The dash adds readability in these awkward constructions, which appear frequently in testimony where long answers separate a noun from its renaming element.
Style Guide References (12)
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