I use em dashes frequently to break up random or ancillary thoughts in my writing. However, I'm uncertain how to deal with punctuation after an em dash when my sentence continues. For example, which of the following is correct?
If at first you don't succeed—I seem to encounter this scenario frequently—try, try again.
If at first you don't succeed—I seem to encounter this scenario frequently—, try, try again.
Would I discard the comma in this case? It seems unnatural to keep it.
EDIT: I originally left out an obvious comma between the two "try"s, but that shouldn't affect the intent of my question.
Answer
My advice would be to avoid this situation if possible, by recasting the sentence. If that is impossible, which I agree it sometimes is, I say you should add the comma. This will give the reader of such an often-complicated sentence the additional help of consistency, ugly though it may be. Fowler, who is usually stingy with punctuation marks, agrees. So does Fowler's modern editor Burchfield, citing him:
... after a second dash 'any stop that
would have been used if the ... dashes
and their contents had not been there
should still be used'.
No comments:
Post a Comment