Should We Stop Using the Em Dash Because AI Favors It? No!
I refuse to let my favorite punctuation mark be a casualty of AI
In the past two weeks or so, I have been noticing that Grammarly has developed a grudge against em dashes. The application—which, yes, I use as a tool in my editor’s toolkit, knowing that it’s helpful to me but not sufficient on its own—has been trying to get me to replace em dashes with commas at every opportunity.
I didn’t think much of it until I received an email from a client asking me to minimize usage of em dashes in the blog posts I write for them:
“Em dashes are apparently not cool anymore. It’s a hallmark of AI writing so best to minimize.”
Shocked, I searched online and found several links saying that the em dash had indeed been flagged as an indicator of AI.
I couldn’t believe it.
AI has stolen my favorite punctuation mark, I fumed.
I’m so happy my favorite punctuation mark is getting much-deserved attention. But if I hear the em dash referred to as the “ChatGPT hyphen” one more time… (Photo by Nachristos on Unsplash)
I wasn’t the only one incensed. (The title of this blog post by Adam Cecil made me laugh out loud.) All of a sudden, a beloved yet under-the-radar punctuation mark used by writers for centuries was going viral as the “ChatGPT hyphen.”
How did this happen?
Well, as The Boston Globe pointed out, AI was trained (without the writers’ permission, it should be noted) on the work of great writers who were/are familiar with the em dash:
“ChatGPT’s writing is the product of the 90 Pulitzer Prize nominees from 1924 to 2020, 95 bestsellers from The New York Times and Publisher’s Weekly in the same timeframe, and other works it was likely fed in its development. That’s a lot of writers who probably favored the em dash.”
Those writers prize the em dash for a reason. It’s a powerful punctuation mark that can bring clarity to a long sentence, add punch to dialogue, and bestow gravitas to a phrase or clause that the writer wants to emphasize—among other uses.
Despite its effectiveness, the em dash isn’t a common punctuation mark. I myself didn’t use it until I started training as a copy editor. So, the em dash’s historical obscurity, paired with AI’s sudden promotion of the mark, caused people to make the false connection that the em dash was an AI indicator: the “ChatGPT hyphen.”
It would be funny if it weren’t giving me heart palpitations!
“The em dash is such a powerful writing tool that also carries great subtlety to it,” Aileen Gallagher, a journalism professor at Syracuse University, told The Washington Post. “The idea that it is an indicator of soulless, dead AI-generated writing is really upsetting to me.”
Same, Aileen, same.
Ironically, the em dash may be a sign not that content was generated by AI, but that it was edited by a pro editor who knows how to use em dashes!
Yet there may be one positive outcome of this situation.
Because of how useful the em dash is, those who know how to use it tend to overuse it. Reducing em dashes is indeed something I focus on when editing my clients’ work. (PSA: The general rule is to use only one, or one set, per paragraph, or better yet, every few paragraphs.)
So, minimizing em dash usage was wise even before AI got involved.
But the em dash shouldn’t be eradicated, and it definitely shouldn’t be labeled as a sign of AI. After all, its 10 minutes in the sun might have led to more people learning how to use it in their writing!
The defamation of the em dash serves as a warning of how AI may influence language in the future. AI has rapidly become a ubiquitous tool, and it’s developing fast, but it’s hardly foolproof. As we use it, we have to be careful that it doesn’t lead us illogically astray.
Want to read more about this subject? I found these articles/blog posts to be well-researched and informative:
Want to know more about the em dash? Like, what it is, how to type it on the keyboard, and how to use it? I’m writing a blog post about it, but in the meantime, read The New York Times’ explainer.
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Hi, I’m Jaime, editor and owner of Pristine Editing LLC. To get to know me better, and for more editing tips, sign up for my quarterly email newsletter! You can also follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram. My website is pristineediting.com, and there you can find my free style guide template.