Writing Prompt Answers:
"Come on, Sally," Mark said.
"I'm coming!" she replied.
He said, "Hurry up."
"What's the rush, Mark?" she asked.
Ellipses:
Ellipses are three periods in a row that indicate a trailing off of thoughts or a pause in thought or dialogue. (. . .)
Ex: She couldn't be serious, unless . . .
or
"I didn't mean what I said. It's only I think I . . ."
*Spacing: before and after ellipses. (space) . . . (space)
Spaces between periods or not is a matter of style, but be consistent.
But a question mark after an ellipses gets no space (just like a regular word).
Dashes:
There are three types of dashes: hyphen, en dash, and em dash.
As the names imply, en dash is the length of the letter "n" and em dash is as long as the letter "m."
A hyphen connects two closely related things.
Ex: two-thirds, self-deprecating
En dash connects things related by distance.
Ex: January--March
Em dash indicates specific notions in writing depending on how it's used.
Ex: (As interrupted dialogue)
"Now see here---"
"I will do no such thing!"
*Interruptions include thought and actions as well.
Ex: I laid my head on the pillow---
When a tiger landed on the bed!
*Em dashes are also used to indicate a deeper thought or detail without leaving a sentence.
Ex: She stacked the cans of vegetables---green beans, corn, peas, carrots---and stood back to admire her work.
(Space between words but not the em dashes or the words connected to the em dash.)
Arguably, em dashes can be interchanged with comas in the above example, but that's left up to the writer's or editor's preference.
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