<p>I saw things on the act surrounded by dashes like so -sample- and have no idea what this is even called or how to use them properly, and my prep book didn't cover it, nor have any of my English classes.. Can someone at least tell me what to google so I can learn to use them?</p>
<p>One small “dash” is a hyphen. One long “dash” is just a dash, I think. Dashes, for the most part, are used in replacement of commas, if you feel that commas are not “strong” enough for a certain statement. Hyphens connect two words that can go together, such as “He is a well-rounded student.” or used to signal a continuing word onto the next line.</p>