Reply To: Spacing of Dash
Thank you for the question. Dashes and spaces always seems to be a difficult topic.
First you must decide if these dashes are: mid-sentence dashes; end an incomplete thought or sentence; or begin an incomplete thought or sentence.
Let's break down what is happening in print.
The words --she hesitated and then finished-- tells us that the speaker is pausing.
That let's us know that each of the sets of quoted material are not complete sentences.
Other clues to look for would be, punctuation that ends a sentence and capital letters that indicate the beginning of a sentence.
There are no ending marks of punctuaiton or capitals before or after either dash.
Another indication that these are mid-sentence dashes.
I think the confusion is due to the quotation marks.
The quotation marks do not indicate the beginning or the ending of a sentence.
With that in mind, I would treat these as mid-sentence dashes and braille each of them unspaced.
Saralyn