Member-only story
No, Em Dashes Are Not a Sign of AI.
It’s just bad writing and lazier editing.
The end of the literature didn’t start with a bang…
It started with the em dash.
Of course. I’m kidding, but it kind of feels like that right now, doesn’t it? If you’re a writer on the internet, you have probably heard a strange little myth that the “em dash” is obviously the primary sign of crappy AI writing because no human would ever use such versatile punctuation.
This is just one of many posts I saw touting that same old story:
And worse yet…
That’s not the only punctuation being villainized as the hallmark sign of AI writing tools. Nope. The ellipsis has also been brought under scrutiny. (Fuck why did I use it again!?) Even the sparkle emoji has now been shunned and shamed for having the audacity to exist.
✨ RIP Sparkle emoji. You’ll be missed.✨
At this rate, simply using words will become a sign of AI.
We’re all doomed.
Well, writers are anyway.
I daresay the only way forward is to go backward.
We must return to the only truly human forms of communication if we want people to believe we’re really, truly humans. Things like carrier pigeons, hieroglyphs, or cave paintings. (Please come to my cave to read my future blogs, I promise I am not a murderer! Just a writer trying to be seen as a human instead of AI garbage).
Thankfully there has been pushback.
A lot of writers are pointing out that literally anyone who likes to read books or has taken Creative Writing 101 in college has used an em dash at some point.
Probably too many if we’re being honest ( guilty👋).
Matt Durante makes the point hilariously in this LinkedIn post. Tolkien, Austen, and Hemingway are all guilty of using AI in their books according to this logic. I can’t embed the video, but I highly suggest watching it.
