How to Use a Dash

How to Use a Dash The dash (- )  is a mark of punctuation  used to set off a word or phrase after an independent clause or a parenthetical remark (words, phrases, or clauses that interrupt a sentence). Dont confuse the dash (- ) with the hyphen (-): the dash is longer. As William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White explained in The Elements of Style: A  dash  is a mark of separation stronger than a  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹comma, less formal than a  colon, and more relaxed than  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹parentheses. There are actually two types of dashes, each with different uses: the  em dash- also called the long dash, according to Oxford Online Dictionaries- and the  en dash, which doesnt have another name but falls between the hyphen and em dash in terms of length.  The  en dash  is so named because it is approximately the equivalent width of the uppercase letter  N  and the  em dash  is roughly the width of an uppercase  M. Origins Merriam-Webster says the word  dash  comes from the  Middle English word  dasshen, which probably derives from the Middle French term  dachier,  meaning to impel forward. One current definition of the word  dash  is to break, which would well describe what a dash does in syntax. The  Online Etymology Dictionary  says the dash- a horizontal line used as a punctuation mark- first appeared in writing and printing in the 1550s. By the late 1800s, the dash had taken on some very specific roles. According to  Thomas MacKellar, in his 1885 book, The American Printer: A Manual of Typography : The em dash...is frequently used in particular works as a substitute for the comma or for the colon, and is found particularly serviceable in rhapsodical writing, where interrupted sentences frequently occur.   MacKellar noted several specific uses for the dash, including: A sign of repetition in catalogs of goods, where it means  ditto.In catalogs of books, where it was used instead of repeating an authors name.As a stand-in for the words  to  and  till, as in chap. xvi. 13-17. The last use would today be an  en dash, which indicates a range. The En Dash Though the Associated Press does not use the  en dash, the press service nicely describes how other styles  do  use the shorter dash.  Some other styles call for  en dashes  to indicate ranges of dates, times, or page numbers, or with some compound modifiers. For example: He worked from 9–5.  She works from 8 a.m.–5 p.m.The festival will take place March 15–31.For your homework, read pages 49–64. To create an  en dash  using a keyboard on a Windows-based system, hold down the Alt key and simultaneously type 0150. To create this punctuation mark on a  Macintosh-based system  hold down the Option  key  and press the Minus key  [-].  American Psychological Association notes that you would use the  en dash  for: Items of equal weight (test–retest, male–female, the Chicago–London flight).Page ranges (in references, â€Å"...Journal of Applied Psychology,  86, 718–729†).Other types of ranges (16–30 kHz). Angela Gibson, writing for the MLA Style Center, a writing resource for the Modern Languages Association, says the organization uses an en dash when a single compound adjective is a proper noun, as in: Pre–Industrial Revolution city. She notes that the MLA also calls for an  en dash when a compound in the predicate position includes a proper noun: The crowd was Beyoncà © Knowles–obsessed. The Em Dash The AP, which does use  em dashes, explains that these punctuation marks are  used: To signal an abrupt change.To set off a series within a phrase.Before attribution to an author or composer in some formats.After datelines.To start lists. AP style calls for a space on both sides of an  em  dash, but most other styles, including MLA and APA, omit the spaces. On a Windows-based system, you can form an  em dash  on a keyboard by holding down the Alt key and typing  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹0151. To create the em dash on a Macintosh-based system, hold down the  Shift  and  Option  keys and press the  Minus  key [-], notes  Techwalla, adding that alternatively, you can press the  Hyphen  key twice and press  Space. There are two basic ways to use an  em dash  in a sentence: After an independent clause: Author Saul Below, in My Paris, provides an example of using an  em dash  after an independent clause: Life, said Samuel Butler, is like giving a concert on the violin while learning to play the instrument- that, friends, is real wisdom. To set off words and phrases:  Writers have effectively used  em dashes  to shoehorn a parenthetical thought or remark into a sentence, as this quote illustrates: Copper Lincoln cents- pale zinc-coated steel for a year in the war- figure in my earliest impressions of money.- John Updike, A Sense of Change,  The New Yorker, April 26, 1999 Thoughts on the Dash For a tiny punctuation mark, the dash has sparked an unusual level of debate among writers, grammarians, and punctuation experts. The dash is seductive, says Ernest Gowers in The Complete Plain Words, a style, grammar, and punctuation reference guide. It tempts the writer to use it as a punctuation-maid-of-all-work that saves him the trouble of choosing the right stop. Some have expressed support for the dash: The dash is less formal than the semicolon, which makes it more attractive; it enhances conversational tone; and...it is capable of quite subtle effects. The main reason people use it, however, is that they know you cant use it wrongly.- Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots Leaves Other writers strenuously oppose using the mark: The problem with the  dash- as you may have noticed!- is that it discourages truly efficient writing. It also- and this might be its worst sin- disrupts the flow of a sentence. Dont you find it annoying- and you can tell me if you do, I wont be hurt- when a writer inserts a thought into the midst of another one thats not yet complete?- Norene Malone, The Case- Please Hear Me Out- Against the Em Dash.  Slate, May 24, 2011 So, next time you look in your toolkit of punctuation marks and see the  en dash  or  em dash  just waiting to be put to work, ensure that you are using these marks for the right reasons and following the rules discussed. Ask yourself if your  parenthetical remark  will add nuance and insight to your writing or just confuse the reader. If its the latter, return the dashes to your punctuation tool bag and use a comma, colon, or semicolon instead, or revise the sentence so that you can omit the dreaded dash. Source Gowers, Ernest. Plain Words: A Guide to the Use of English. Rebecca Gowers, Paperback, Penguin UK, October 1, 2015.

The Role of O-acetylserine Sulfhydrylase in Cysteine Biosynt essays

The Role of O-acetylserine Sulfhydrylase in Cysteine Biosynt essays The Role of O-acetylserine Sulfhydrylase in Cysteine Biosynthesis in Salmonella tryphimurium: A structural and functional Analysis Pyridoxial 5-phosphate (PLP) acts as a cofactor in many enzymes involved in diverse aspects of amino acid metabolism such as transamination, /-elimination, /-replacement and racemization. In all PLP-dependant enzymes the carbonyl group of the PLP coenzyme binds to an -amino group of a lysine residue in the active site, forming an internal aldimine. O-Acetylserine sulfahydrylase (OASS), isolated from Salmonella typhimurium, belongs to the -family of PLP-dependant enzymes and catalyzes the last step in the cysteine biosynthesis pathway via -replacement, converting O-acetylserine (OAS) to cysteine, upon exchanging acetate in the OAS side chain for sulfide (Fig. 1). The structural and functional framework underlying the reaction mechanism for OASS has been characterized extensively by kinetic studies, site-directed mutagenesis, UV-visible fluorescence and phosphorescence spectroscopy and x-ray structural determination. Three conformationally distinct open, closed, and inhibited s tates were elucidated. Overall Topology and Protein Folding The structures of all proteins can be described in a hierarchical manner relating four levels of organization. The primary level is the amino acid sequence. The secondary level is constructed by motifs in backbone conformations, stabilized by hydrogen bonding, such as helices and -sheets. Tertiary structure describes the complete folded three-dimensional shape of a single chain, and quaternary structure is the association of folded chains to make oligomeric proteins. The nature of the final folded protein, including quaternary structure, is the net result of both enthalpic (H) and entropic (S) optimization to achieve the lowest or most negative free energy (...

Super Quick Easter Activities and Ideas

Super Quick Easter Activities and Ideas Easter is one of the most celebrated holidays in the world. Besides the traditional Easter egg hunt, there are a variety of ways teachers can celebrate with their students, they can sing a song, create a poem, make a craft, provide a worksheet activity, play a game, or even have an Easter party. All of these Easter activities for primary school are a great way to get your students involved in the holiday. Use these ideas in your classroom when youre short on time, or in need of a little inspiration. Quick Easter Resources When creating your Easter-themed unit its important to provide a variety of lessons. The best way to start an Easter-theme is to get prior knowledge of what the students know about Easter. Use a graphic organizer, such as a KWL chart to get this information. Once you gather this, you can begin crafting and creating your Easter unit. Easter Vocabulary Word ListEaster Acrostic Poem Lesson PlanEaster Journal Writing Prompts and Topics Easter Poems and Songs Poetry and Music is a wonderful way to explore feelings and emotions, and it provides students with a way to be creative and express themselves while celebrating the holiday. Provide students with a variety of poems and songs about Easter, then have them try to create some on their own. Easter Ready-to-Print Activities Activities dont always have to be well thought-out or planned in advance for students to learn important concepts. Here is an inexpensive way to provide some Easter fun for your class. Just simply print out any of these activities right from your computer. Easter Crafts Providing an Easter craft is a great way to get your students to express their creative side. Give students a variety of supplies to choose from when creating their craft. This will help promote self-expression and allow them to really use their creative thinking skills. With a little imagination and creativity, these Easter craft ideas can make a wonderful gift or a delightful holiday keepsake. Easter Games Easter games are a great way to get your students in the holiday spirit. They get the students up and moving while reinforcing the Easter concept. A fun idea to try is to give your students a variety of Easter-themed items and have them make up their own game. Youll be surprised by how clever they are. Easter Puzzles To help make learning about Easter fun, provide a few enjoyable puzzles. Puzzles are a great way to challenge the mind while reinforcing the Easter-theme. Challenge your students to create an Easter puzzle of their own. Provide a variety of examples so they can get ideas, then allow them to try to create one themselves. Easter Recipes These recipes are perfect to use for an Easter party or just for an everyday snack throughout the Easter season. More Easter Fun Throwing an Easter party in your classroom? Need help choosing the perfect Easter book to read to your students? These resources will give you great ideas to plan and execute the perfect Easter party.

Nursing Ethics of Patients Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Nursing Ethics of Patients - Case Study Example And lastly, an ethical decision-making model will be discussed keeping in view the given scenario. Ethical theories form the bedrock on which the guiding principles of the nursing profession are based. They are responsible for providing a structural approach to moral reasoning in this profession (Med India, 2011). Most often than not, healthcare professionals are faced with situations that require the employment of such ethical theories for the purpose of moral reasoning so as to conclude the moral value of a judgment under consideration (Registered Nurse Canada, 2009). Example of the employment of such theories includes granting the right to the patients to be able to make their own treatment-related decisions. This term refers to the right of an individual to keep the medical information and records private. The information under its clause can only be trusted to the healthcare professionals dealing with the patient and is not to be made public or even given to someone else without the consent of the patient (Fullbrook, 2007). Even though confidentiality is something that is to be valued and respected, there are situations in which that does not seem like the best thing to do, as is the scenario in the given case. In such cases, it is considered that one establishes a domain of certain reasonable limits. It would somehow restrict the boundary to which the confidentiality principle is to be respected (Wolfe, 1962). However, in cases where the confidentiality aspect endangers the prospective patient, it becomes an ethical dilemma for the healthcare professionals that are then torn between upholding the confidentiality and informing others of the condition for treatment (Corey & Callanan, 1998). Even though confidentiality is a vital practice in the medical profession, just like all the other factors, it is not absolute. (Wynia, 2007).

Impacts from hosting the Olympic Games on local businesses Literature review

Impacts from hosting the Olympic Games on local businesses - Literature review Example In most cases, the participants are professionals who are appropriately trained and the organizers of Olympic Games are well compensated for their efforts. In preparation for Olympic Games, host countries normally get involved in massive renovation projects that become beneficial to them for many years. It is essential to state that Olympic Games have both positive and negative impacts on the host country and most of these impacts associated with the Games are either social, or economic among others (Theodoros, 2007, p. 12). In most cases, when a country is hosting Olympic Games, there are high expectations by the local businesspersons that they will receive more business due to the coming of spectators to view the events but in some instances, such expectations are not met. For instance, during the recent London Olympic Games, local small business individuals expected an Olympic pump in their business but this was not the case. They claimed that this was just unusual because vendors attended the 2012 Olympics expecting to have fabulous volumes of sales in August, but it was not so. During the opening day of the Olympic Games, local traders registered a 10% decrease and throughout, there had been a 12% weekly and 16% rises in the footfall, in London West End businesses (Dreyer, 2011, p. 11). Most people state that trade has not been as good as some individuals may think and this is because the city appears to have been deserted by a majority during the day. In addition, small business owners felt that there were few tourists in the city willing to spend their money. According to Ed Francis who operates a Hampshire Hog in the western part of London, there has been a slight drop in daytime businesses since the commencement of London 2012 Olympics. The drop in trade has also been associated with the increasing number of local people who choose not to attend the Olympics and decide to take holidays out of the country. This means that local tourists who at times tak e rooms decrease in number (Leggat, 2003, p. 201 - 203). In most cases before the Olympic Games commence, local residents feel that demand for roads and the entire public transport network will be high. As a result, a well-coordinated multi agency is set up to manage such and ensure that people get to their places of work in time. In most instances, Olympic Games led to increase in the need for transport and as a result, it is always necessary to plan to ensure that the local individuals’ daily operations are not affected (Adam, 2005, p. 67). For instance, in London, the local parking and traffic management plans were set up to ensure that spectators were not allowed to park their vehicles near the venues. These steps were aimed at ensuring public safety, promoting efficient operations in the venues, and creating emergency routes. The freight industry was also very busy during the games and despite the fact that most roads were busy during the Olympics, freights always found their way through the challenging operating environment (Weed, 2012, 75-80). Mostly, the town councils are assigned the task of operating lorry schemes to ensure easy and fast delivery. They have always preferred night delivery to avoid late delivery and unnecessary traffic during the day. It is worth noting that games play a significant role in ensuring improvement of the local roads. For instance, in London, there was an improvement at Stratford and the Kings Cross. Furthermore,

ICT AND LITERACY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

ICT AND LITERACY - Essay Example rofound impact on our education, society and economy .But, teachers are not being well informed on ICT field as in contrast happens with the young pupils, considered as â€Å"digital natives†. Both teachers and pupils have to be taught to use the above devices and retrieve the appropriate information from the suitable web sites. The impact of technology on human lives will surely increase in times to come. The dependence of human race on technology is increasing at a terrific pace. Technology is no more meant for the ones who hold a degree of it like the software engineers and technicians, etc. The arena of technology use has penetrated to the common people segment also. Whether it is about withdrawal of money from an ATM, net banking, or reading voice messages on the telephone, technology has its presence everywhere. Thus, it becomes rather necessary to make the world population technologically literate. This will provide ease to the people to work and understanding the working in this rather technological world of today. Thus, the importance of ICT in literacy not is denied (Alan Rodgers, 2002). ICT has proved to be a huge success in value addition to students in every phase of learning and for every age group, be it children or adults, ICT offers learning advantages to all of them and can be used to provide learning in any discipline. Though, it is important to note that the ICT technologies have to be customized in order to suit the requirements of learners. Accepting the fact that being educated and adapting to today’s school and social needs, in my perspective, constitutes the major challenge of any time and the characteristic feature of the literate citizen in order to be considered productive and useful and not marginalized. And the current challenge regards information and communication technologies (ICT) that play an essential role in supporting daily life in todays digital society. They are used at school, at work, in day-to-day relationships, in

Location analysis and group work daily Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Location analysis and group work daily - Essay Example The other advantage is that in terms of flow of traffic within the site, this has made it possible to maintain its market appeal to the customers (Blackaby, 2009). As a group, we performed relatively well. Several issues came up in the course of the meeting and it affected the way in which we completed the task. The lecturer required that we form our own groups that we would all be comfortable working with. This we did, and it was convenient to us because we had similar background in terms of the course we studied at the university and this made us to cope well. In addition, we had worked previously together in group work for other subjects that we studied together. In the course of the group work, several issues manifested themselves as we worked together. Time management was not accomplished well because some group members lived far away from the university and therefore, the time that we had agreed on was at no particular adhered to and we obviously had to accommodate all group members in order to work as a team. Conflict in the process of group work was a big issue that arose. At times, the participants in the group openly attacked each other and this at one point brought the discussion to a halt for some time. The way the group members stated some major points during the discussion brought out both the negative and positive criticism. Despite all these challenges, we were finally able to complete the assignment on time. What I would change to the process. For the group members who were not living within the university, I would ensure that we set the time that is convenient to them and comfortable to us as a team. I would convince other group members to agree on a time limit in which the discussion would take. For instance, one hour for each meeting scheduled to take place so as to allow the affected persons to attend and leave the meeting at their own pleasure. In the issue of conflict, I as the group leader would ensure that if there were any disagreements, they would be constructive and not directed to any particular person. I would also ensure that there was room for free expression of thoughts while coordinating the group and encourage criticism (Hansen, et al 2002). How to improve performance as a group. I as the group leader would manage the group well for it to work effectively. I would ensure that the set aims and objectives of the group work are incorporated from each and every member. For example, all participants in the group would make contributions in the setting of aims and objectives. This would help each individual develop personally .The group would also benefit as a whole. Other benefits would be to that the participants would learn academically. We would also ensure that the responsibilities that we adapt help us to achieve the desired success together. My individual role and contribution. My group members