AI’s overuse of the em dash could be your biggest giveaway
Letting AI write unsupervised risks losing your voice to overpolished clichés.
AI-generated writing may be giving itself away, and the em dash is its most flamboyant tell. Long beloved by grammar nerds for its versatility, the em dash has become AI’s go-to flourish, but not everyone is impressed.
Pacing, pauses, and a suspicious number of em dashes are often a sign that a machine had its hand in the prose. Even simple requests for editing can leave users with sentences reworked into what feels like an AI-powered monologue.
Though tools like ChatGPT or Gemini can be powerful assistants, using them blindly can dull the human spark. Overuse of certain AI quirks, like rhetorical questions, generic phrases or overstyled punctuation, can make even an honest email feel like corporate poetry.
Writers are being advised to take the reins back. Draft the first version by hand, let the AI refine it, then strip out anything that feels artificial, especially the dashes. Keeping your natural voice intact may be the best way to make sure your readers are connecting with you, not just the machine behind the curtain.
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