When you’re writing by hand, a hyphen and a dash can look pretty similar, although the meanings differ. You might throw in a hyphen to link two well-known words or add a dash—for impact, of course.

Looking through some students’ scripts on Wednesday, I discovered there is a need to revisit the issue of the uses of the hyphen (-) and dash (—). Many still find it difficult to differentiate between ...

It seems we're always declaring our great fondness for this punctuation mark or that one. Oh, the whimsical nature of the semicolon and how smart she makes us feel. Oh, the gorgeous curves of the ...