Abandon the em-dash in your human writing?
The irony—and it’s a big irony—is that real writers use em-dash frequently, and for reasons. As a written signifier of verbal speech pauses, it means something different than what commas and semicolons mean. It connects while separating.
That’s why so many writers use em-dash when it is the best mark for the job. And chatbots use it because they were schooled on millions of writers.
1/3
That this human thing real writers do is now a red flag to readers who mistrust AI is—as I said—ironic. And for editors, it’s frustrating, as it presents a moral conundrum:
2/3
Replace a well-used em-dash with a comma so suspicious readers won’t mistakenly flag the text as AI-generated? I’ve done it.
Particularly in bulleted lists where every list item includes a em-dash that could work as a colon, or when the writing is fairly dry—and thus potentially triggering for ticked-off hunters of AI signifiers. Le sigh.
3/3
Afterthought: Ultimately, the best defense is to write well. Write humanly. The closer you make it to that aim, the fewer the folks who will worry about the AI-or-human provenance of your words.
Saved here: https://zeldman.com/2026/03/24/dine-n-em-dash/
zeldman
Erik Vorhes