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Last Seven Days

Question on July 2, 2025

Whenever I come across a sentence that contains more than two em dashes, I find a way to cut it down to two at most and tell the editor that there's an upper limit of two per sentence; I feel that including more than two makes sentences choppy and/or confusing. But I'm wondering whether there's any real justification for this "rule." Do you have an internal policy/stance on it? 

This is the latest example where it came up: "What vibe coding does for — and to — programming, vibe analytics does for — and with — data." I changed it to read: "What vibe coding does for (and to) programming, vibe analytics does for (and with) data.

Answer

The AP Stylebook gives guidance about how to use em dashes, but not how often to use them. We don’t have an internal policy, but I agree with you, they can be overused. Two per sentence seems like a good limit, and writers and editors should consider other options if their story is already full of em dashes. The Stylebook has more guidance on how to use them under “dashes.” If you find a reference to a “dash” elsewhere in the book, it means em dash.

Some other styles call for en dashes to indicate ranges, such as ranges of dates or times, or with some compound modifiers. 

A little bonus journalism history:  AP has never used en dashes, because they could create garble when a story was transmitted over the wire to a member. That’s not the case anymore, and we should reconsider the ban. Still, don’t expect to see a bunch of them in AP stories any time soon. Old habits die hard.

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