I overuse em-dashes.
I went through a phase of doing Ctrl+0151 in my FFA posts instead of double hyphens — but I lost confidence that my true em-dashes were being displayed correctly in all operating systems and browsers.
I see you favor the [text][space]—[space][text] formulation. I like to cozy mine right up to the text.
Yes.
Just like there are different types of dashes, there are also different types of spaces. Professional typesetters will often use a very tiny space between the text and the em dash. I forget what it's called. I don't know how to do the very tiny space, either on message boards or in MS Word. When I have to choose between a regular space or no space, I generally go with a regular space. But a good case can be made for no space, which more closely resembles the really tiny space.
I'm still rebelling against the idea of only putting one space between a period and the first word of the next sentence. I'm not sure I can handle tiny spaces.
I'm not even trying to float that one. I might try it if I ever hang up my own shingle, but as long as anyone else reviews my work, he or she is going to insist on two spaces for a period. I might as well try to get a partner to adopt Roman spelling. "Svmmary Jvdgment"
Someone reviews all of your work? How big is your firm? How long have you been there?
I'm contracting right now. At Covington, every motion at least got comments from a partner. When I switched firms, I basically worked for one partner. I'm not a great writer, but she was a pretty terrible one. It caused some friction. I don't think that's the reason I'm contracting right now. We were a small business litigation outpost in what was a regional office for the firm. Our group was expected to justify its staffing and we lost the case that had fed much of the group for the last four years. I was last in, and thus, first out. Still, I could probably be labelled a big firm wash-out. I mean, you see how much time I spend on here. Not really a recipe for a successful practice.
I still draft motions as a contractor. But they still get looked at by the partner running the case. I don't run my own cases. My wife is a senior associate at Vault 100 firm and she doesn't really run her own cases either, even when she should. The one exception, for both of us, has been pro bono matters.