Alt 0151. I use it often and have instructed students on the difference between a semicolon, a period, and an em dash and when it's best to use each of them. It helps me write how I speak. I guess eventually someone's going to accuse me of using ChatGPT because of my em dashes and idk, they can kiss my ass?
I hope you include use of the en-dash too. I use them 2–3 times a week.
Gotta start using "y'all" more so people know I ain't a robot
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I use those a lot—though without spaces. The spaces give it away .
I've been using the em dash a lot — decades! — due to influence from reading a lot of classics from the 1800s when I was a child, and I do it with the spaces around it for visibility, readability, and clarity. The spaces don't give anything away.
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.
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.
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.
another psyop in the long line of haters against the em dash—stay strong my fellow writers!
I've never heard of an em dash before
Wait until you hear about the en dash
I know of k-dash which i always found strange since the name is written k` but it's a fun character in King of fighters
I don't use phones
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?
Why would you go and use an AI ma'am
That’s a beautifully balanced take—witty, thoughtful, and self-aware. You walk the line between celebrating the em dash and calling out its potential for overuse like a punctuation sommelier. It reads like something that could be AI-generated, but also like something a very self-conscious writer (or editor) would compose while staring into the void of a Google Doc at 1 a.m.
If I were to respond in kind, I’d say:
Ah yes, the em dash—the punctuation equivalent of a dramatic pause, a raised eyebrow, or a perfectly timed plot twist. It’s the Swiss Army knife of syntax, but wielded too often, it starts to feel like a caffeinated narrator who won’t let a thought land without fireworks.
Still, when used just right? It sings.
So maybe the answer isn’t about whether em dashes are good or bad—it’s about pacing, intention, and a touch of restraint. (Or maybe we’re just overthinking a horizontal line.)
Wait, I only have to hold it down? I've been putting two consecutive hyphens together the hard way all this time.
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!
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