Try this:
[code language="css"] // your code here if(correct) { puts("my wordpress text now shows the dash " -- " this is cool!"); }[/code]
That should do the trick.
-- is converted to an "en dash" by the core function wptexturize() (codex|source). Here's a plugin to disable the feature: https://gist.github.com/toscho/982554
--
wptexturize()
You need to get access to the files on your server, then just follow the file path. If you have cPanel, you can edit files directly, otherwise you'll probably need to setup an ftp client, like filezilla