From blossom to bottle (Edit 2)

[tectak]

Yep thanks tec. I think this one is all over the place. back to the drawing board.

Sorry just read your last crit again. Can you give me any steer on why a dash should be in a pair. Not come accross this idea before, so genuine question as to why it needs this?

Hi cider,
Sorry I missed this query on dashes. I DID say it was a preference and I don't like to give the impression that when I so opine it is written in stone! I did all my research in the the years before today and so I have almost forgotten why I have some my foibles, but a great influence on my "sensible conclusions in grammar" comes from John Whales, the writer and English educator of the American student's of journalism. He knows a good deal about writing.
This is what he says:
""...(This) animus against dashes has no foundation in good usage: many first-rate writers--Hazlitt, Ruskin, Lytton Strachey--make extensive use of the single dash. Nevertheless, it is a pity to irritate even wrong-headed readers needlessly, especially if they happen to be your examiners. All in all, for our purpose of introducing an elucidation, it is probably prudent to follow this practice: use a colon where you can, and use a dash only where a colon won't do--as in this sentence, where a colon has appeared once already." So there you have it.
Unlike bracketted interjected comments (you cannot have one bracket) which may contain just that, a comment, the dash CAN be used on its own but risks leaving the reader unaware of where the interjection ends( John Whale again).
A pair of dashes--that is, at the beginning and end of a phrase--can and should contain additional salient information. My defence rests.
Best,
tectak
Put it in Writing, John Whale 0 460 04582 2 J M dent and Sons Ltd.