Hyphens, En Dashes, Em Dashes

Q. Do you recommend using en dashes and em dashes in tweets? Or hyphens?

A. There are no obvious reasons not to use en dashes and em dashes in tweets aside from the extra effort they require to enter properly. To get either of them from a virtual keyboard, try holding down the hyphen to see more options (including en and em dashes); on physical keyboards, you’ll need a keyboard shortcut (e.g., Alt+0150 and Alt+0151 using the numeric keypad in Windows or Option-Hyphen and Option-Shift-Hyphen on a Mac). Or you can copy and paste from a word processor. But don’t feel obligated. If you’re in a hurry—or if it’s just not your style—you can use a hyphen (-) where an en dash (–) might be best, or two hyphens (--) or a space-hyphen-space ( - ) instead of a true em dash (—).