Use of Dashes
Recently we made use of a two line subtitle on an advertising page with a dash. There is a disagreement over the usage of the dash instead of a colon.
Tickets are -
$15 each for conference games
Is this correct or should it have been...
Tickets are:
$15 each for conference games
Another possibility is that it should not have had either of these punctuations....
Tickets are $15 each
for conference games
What is your opinion?
Bobbi
New member
2 answers 
There is no need to break the sentence with a colon or a dash. You should use neither one (your third option).
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answered Nov 29 '12 at 15:08
David
Contributor
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The fun thing about advertising is poetic license. You don’t necessarily have to follow any rules of grammar. It is all about style. You don’t even have to follow the rules from the style manuals, either. That said, proper grammar is always appreciated around here!
Since you have a subject (tickets) and verb (are), you have a complete sentence and no punctuation is needed in the middle. If you dropped the verb, you could use either the hyphen or the colon. You often see this on a party invitation.
Who – Mary Who: Mary
What – Birthday party What: Birthday party
When – Friday When: Friday
I would move the word each to avoid confusion. Each ticket is $15, but is that for all conference games together? Once I buy a seat, is it mine for all of the games? We already know that a ticket is one ticket, so each should be joined to the conference game more clearly.
Tickets are $15 for each conference game.
Tickets: $15 for each conference game
Tickets - $15 for each conference game
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answered Nov 29 '12 at 17:21
Patty T
Grammarly Fellow
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