The writing group is interdisciplinary, and broken into groups of four. On my team are an Anthropologist, an African American Studies person, and someone from the English department. We had our first session, were asked to write a two page report on a topic, and critiqued each others' work. I learned that I use '--' way too much, especially in place of commas. The universal comment:
"Do not use dashes to set apart material when commas would do the work for you."
Ok, fine. I just love dashes so much--apparently a little too much.
"The dash is a handy device, informal and esentially playful, telling you that you're about to take off on a different tack but still in some way connected with the present course--only you have to remember that the dash is there, and either put a second dash at the end of the notion to let the reader know that he's back on course, or else end the sentence, as here, with a period."
--Lewis Thomas
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