Confession: I love em dashes
Because generative AI engines like ChatGPT use them a lot, some writers are starting to reconsider their use of em dashes (which are so named because they’re the width of a capital M). I get it. No one wants to be accused of using genAI when they didn’t.
But the fact that genAI produces copy with a healthy number of em dashes only means that em dashes are well-represented in their training material, and are therefore a staple of good writing. Cutting the versatile em-dash from your writing will only leave it worse off.
For what it’s worth, I use them all the time in my business writing. Heck, there are five in my latest article for CMSWire. And in the draft of book 1 of my sci-fi trilogy, I have more than 600 em dashes. That comes out to one about every 150 words on average.
That may sound like a lot, but I use them …
- When a character’s speech is interrupted—by another character, a door slamming, or an explosion
- When a character stutters when they’re flustered (e.g., “I— I think”)
- For labored speech, like when they’re out of breath
- When a character’s thoughts are labored and fractured, like before they pass out
- To offset a clause more emphatically than a comma can
- For asides in speech, instead of using parentheses
- Before a list, instead of using colon
Beyond that, they’re just a fantastic tool for controlling the rhythm of a sentence. So, no matter what genAI spits out, I’m going to keep using em dashes. And for the record, I’m going to keep using periods and commas, too, even though those are also suspiciously common in genAI copy.
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The Age of De-Skilling: Who do you want to be?
Where to draw the line with genAI
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