We must not let AI agents scare us off using em dashes in our writing

11 September 2025

I really miss using em dashes in my writing. Ever since content creators started using ChatGPT to help (or supplement) their writing, em dashes have become indicators of AI use.

Something is really wrong — seriously — when people feel they have to stop using certain punctuation marks for fear of their work being considered to be generated by an AI agent.

I’m a prolific user of em dashes — as I’ve said before — and have no intention of doing away with them just because AI agents have the good sense to include em dashes in their output.