Em Dash Is Fine – It Is AI That Sucks

12 pointsposted 7 hours ago
by speckx

2 Comments

FriedFishes

a few seconds ago

I'll push back a tiny bit, though I agree that we ought not change how we write on the basis of AI-isms, and if I would always prefer something poorly written that a human has thought through than something perfect but vacuous.

The em-dash is great for a lot of things like to avoid comma splicing or to indicate a parenthetical remark, but usually superfluous. The subject of "correct" writing can be a bit touch and go of course, but as a reader I really never want to deal with a writer using the em-dash to mimic how they would say something verbally, the dramatic pause into the punchline of the sentence pattern (personal opinion) sucks.

schopra909

an hour ago

I feel this in my bones, as someone who has been using em dashes in their texts and writing before ChatGPT existed.

In the past year, I’ve had 3 or 4 times when someone has “called me out” for using AI when I’m just an em dash organically.There’s no discussion of what I wrote; just immediate anger.

It feels like giving in, but I might have to edit my writing style just because of the visceral reactions