If I am to be called out as an LLM, at least I can lay a claim I've been one for 20 years!
I do eschew one tradition surrounding it — the one of using no spaces around it — despite recommendations of different Manuals of Style and typographic norms. It simply looks better with more breathing room.
It would look ( to most people ) very strange.
Em-dashes are not the same thing as parenthesis even if they are used in similar circumstances, and as a sibling comment recognized well, you'd still put spaces outside the parenthesis —but this would be terrible with em-dashes— wouldn't you agree?
This is really a style issue, and it mostly depends on what "school" you subscribe to.
This caused an argument with my partner recently as she’s an avid Em Dash user… you can see where this is going.
The Oxford style guide page 18 https://www.ox.ac.uk/public-affairs/style-guide
> m-dash (—)
> Do not use; use an n-dash instead.
> n-dash (–)
> Use in a pair in place of round brackets or commas, surrounded by spaces.
I feel a number of people online started using something like the "British style", as an ascii hyphen is closer to an n-dash than an m-dash in width. And then without spaces either side looks very squished.
