Chat, give me back my em dash
Writers are tired of hearing about AI. Same. But this isn't about hype-it's about protecting the process that makes our work worth reading.
AI shouldn't take writing out of human hands. The cadence, the contradictions, the messy drafts that turn into something clear-all of that lives in time, attention and a mind you can't outsource.
The em dash isn't a gimmick-it's a breath
My natural style leans breathless. I like a run-on (in moderation), parentheses (obviously) and the occasional sentence that bends mid-thought-because that's how people think.
Read Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" and you'll feel it: punctuation as rhythm, not just rules. The em dash, semicolon and comma become stutters and pauses that pull you inside a mind. That's the point.
If you need a refresher on using the em dash well, this is a solid primer: Merriam-Webster on em dashes vs. en dashes.
AI borrowed the look of nuance
We've all seen the pattern: not X-but Y. Or the rule of three: three adjectives strung together for rhythm and punch. These once-human moves now get flagged as "AI tells."
So what-do we surrender the em dash and the comma because a model copies the surface pattern? Dropping our tools doesn't make the writing better. It just makes it blander.
Corporate shortcuts are lowering the bar
Teams are handing off copy, slogans and captions to models in the name of efficiency. The result reads like an adult mad lib: correct, tidy, empty.
There are bigger costs, too. Training and running large models consumes serious energy; that's not a scare line-there's data behind it. For context, see MIT Technology Review's summary on AI's carbon footprint: one model, five cars' worth of emissions.
The standard can't be "doesn't sound like AI"
If the best thing you can say about a draft is that it doesn't trigger a detector, the bar has already fallen. Our work should feel like a person wrestled with an idea-then made choices on purpose.
Let's not edit ourselves into sterile, detector-safe prose. Keep the edge. Keep the air.
Practical ways to keep your human voice
- Draft messy on purpose. Get the thought out, not the polish. Then edit with a clear head.
- Read aloud. Where you naturally pause, consider an em dash. Where you stumble, cut or clarify.
- Vary sentence length. Follow a long, flowing line with a short hit. Rhythm signals a human at work.
- Use the em dash for motion, not decoration. It should carry a shift, an aside or a punch.
- Leave one clean contradiction unresolved-let the reader feel the tension you actually feel.
- Skip the "make this sound better" prompt. Do your own second and third pass. That's the job.
- Treat style guides as tools, not cages. The Oxford comma, the dash, the semicolon-use them with intent.
- If a client forces AI into the process, rewrite until every line sounds like you and serves the brief.
Keep the em dash
The em dash is a pause without a period, a hinge between beats, a way to keep the sentence alive without chopping it into pieces. It's not a trick. It's a tool.
Don't let "AI tells" scare you off your own voice. Use the dash when it earns its place-and cut it when it doesn't.
The line worth drawing
Human thought is imperfect. Good writing respects that, then shapes it-without sanding off every edge.
If you don't have the time or energy to think and edit, skip the piece. And AI shouldn't write it either. Save the em dashes and commas for moments when you mean them, and keep the craft where it belongs: in your hands.
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