AGLC4 Rule 1.6.3: Em-Dashes, En-Dashes, Hyphens and Slashes
An em dash marks a break in a sentence or stands in for a colon, and a pair can frame a parenthetical remark. An en dash joins the ends of a numeric span and is preferred to a slash for showing tension between two ideas; a slash may separate alternatives. A hyphen joins parts of a compound word. Quotations are conformed to this rule except for hyphenation.
AGLC4 page 23
Formatting
- Em dash in running text is spaced on both sides.
- En dash in a numeric span is unspaced (spans of dates and times have their own spacing under rule 1.11.4).
- En dash between two opposed concepts is unspaced.
- Slash between alternatives is unspaced.
- Hyphens follow the dictionary rule in 1.9.1.
- Quoted material is conformed to these dash rules, but its hyphenation is left as in the source.
In the text
There was no clear ratio in the decision — indeed, with seven judgments, this was to be expected. [em-dash]
Those who might have thought otherwise — presumably including Judge McDonald in her dissent in Tadić — were in fact conflating two fundamentally different types of liability.132 [em-dashes]
There was much discussion on pages 14–22 [en-dash] … tort–contract dichotomy [en-dash] … a yes/no question [slash] … evidence-based policymaking. [hyphen]
Forms in the rule
Quoted from the Guide, page 23- pages 14–22
- tort–contract dichotomy
- a yes/no question
- evidence-based policymaking
See also
Check your footnotes against these rules
Paste your paper into the free AGLC4 checker and each footnote is graded against the Guide, with the rule it breaks. To write a citation from scratch, use the AGLC4 citation generator.
Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.