chat

In high school, an English teacher once told us she over used em dashes and her teacher told her you can't just dash through your papers. I tried to avoid their over use after that, which made me learn the other ways to organize my (chaotic) thoughts.

Needless to say, I think that it's a tell of young writers more than AI. The overuse is because the author isn't comfortable with using colons, parenthesis, or commas - the things that the em dash can substitute for grammatically.

A good writer understands offsetting with a dash adds more emphasis than commas (neutral) or parenthesis (lower emphasis). Overuse is a sign of either immaturity or AI. Since there's a lot of immature writers on the internet (and have been since the eternal summer began), it really isn't useful as a tell online.

I don't use phones

Just say in the middle of your statement that billionaires should be shot and that will clear up provenance questions immediately!

It's not that it isn't automatically an indicator of AI generation, rather — it is used frequently by AI in a way that doesn't follow the natural flow of human conversation.

If you'd like to know more, I'm here to help!

Fun fact: you can tell which of my comments I wrote on my phone vs my laptop based on if I write -- (on my phone, because my Thumbkey layout doesn't have an em dash) or — (on my laptop, where I've added Emd for em dash as a custom dictionary entry in my Japanese IME)

I use those a lot—though without spaces. The spaces give it away .

another psyop in the long line of haters against the em dash—stay strong my fellow writers!

Yeah my papers are full of em dashes, it's just a good punctuation and I'm sadly addicted to long and overly complex sentences.

Gotta start using "y'all" more so people know I ain't a robot

Man, I hate it. I use the em dash so much and now I'm super self conscious about it.

It has gotten me to use a semi-colon a lot more.

Em dashes are very useful. Typically you will not see a space between the em dash and the words, but you will for doubled hyphens -- like that—and that.

I've never heard of an em dash before

Ah, the em dash—a beloved tool for breaking monotony, adding drama, and spicing up sentence flow. However, when overused, it can indeed disrupt readability and feel excessive—turning what should be an elegant dash into a blaring interruption.

For language models, em dashes often emerge as a stylistic crutch. Why? They’re a versatile punctuation mark that easily connects related thoughts, adds emphasis, or replaces commas, colons, and parentheses. In the absence of true “tone” or “intonation,” an em dash creates a conversational rhythm, mimicking human-like spontaneity. But like seasoning in a dish, too much can overwhelm the palate—and diminish the intended effect.

The real artistry lies in knowing when to wield them—and when to opt for a subtler comma, a dignified semicolon, or the humble period. What do you think: are em dashes an enhancement or an irritant in writing?

Wait, I only have to hold it down? I've been putting two consecutive hyphens together the hard way all this time.