Thanks Chat GPT for bringing back the em dash—but now I’m too afraid to use it

It’s become the tell tale sign that you’ve used Chat GPT to write your email, essay or potentially amusing instagram description. But spare a moment for those amongst us who still delight in typing our own em dashes.

Once the signal of punctuational prowess—or that perhaps you are from the Victoria era—the em dash has now become the calling card of AI content. And I am spiralling.

I managed to make it all the way to AS Level English before dropping out of school and going to art college—what a cliche! Thus, giving me the confidence to start this sentence with the word ‘thus’, and also, to throw an em dash into my writings with reckless abandon and smugly smirking to myself when someone uses a hyphen instead. Even if hyphens kind of look nicer, are more accessible and are much easier to type.*

However. I now find myself pausing over my keyboard, fingers frozen, debating whether I double tap that hyphen every time I want to pepper in some much-needed irreverence to my copy. 

Do I add the em dash and risk the accusations that my content isn’t original? Or do I run the gauntlet of my fellow grammarians' judgement for my dowdy punctuation choices? 

Or, should I just be less snarky?

Is this an overreaction?

Recently, I had a client suggest that the emails I write for them are all whipped up in GPT, and the supposed smoking gun was my beloved em dashes. 

Heartbroken, I advised that I do occasionally use Chat GPT to proofread my copy, because I write ‘wine’ instead of ‘win’ every time (muscle memory?), but I do not let it write for me. You get what you pay for here, organic grass-fed copy from my brain, with occasional wine-related typos.

So should I abandon my punctuational pleasures to maintain my reputation as an average copywriter. Is using them becoming a detractor for new clients? Or do I continue to proudly puncture each and every sentence with a dash as long as the letter M?

Okay, maybe not every sentence. I’m not insane… right..?

The end of the em dash and us

After having a quick doomscroll to remind myself that there are bigger things to worry about, I consider how the em dash got there. Even after engulfing the many TBs of data Chat GPT, Grok or Gemini has—most of which I imagine is poorly written reviews, Reddits and rants—it has managed to maintain impeccable and imaginative grammar choices. And is perhaps preserving my loved dashes.

I imagine the team in San Francisco who were tasked with training ‘the AI’, graciously served it the Merriam Webster website for starters. Then after its little language ‘amuse-bouches’ let it lose on the chaos buffet of general information online. Misinformation yummy!

As I typed that last line, I just saw the irony here. We taught the AI how to use language properly, stopped using it ourselves, and now it is teaching us again?! Maybe we’re not descending into an emoji-first vernacular—an idea I don’t hate, but more about that another time.

Zooming further out, it’s clear to see that the issue isn’t really ‘bitch stole my look’. It is potentially going to be ‘bitch stole my job’. And more importantly, the energy-usage required to write all of those lovely little dashes, is going to drive us into an early extinction. Bitch, we're dead.

Now isn’t that more comforting?

*

How and when to use an em dash and more dashes

If you would like to rise up and join me in the fight against inappropriate hyphens, please read my little guide on when and how to use an em dash or en dash.

The em dash

An em dash can mark an abrupt change or break in the structure of a sentence. For example:

Tessa likes to use commas, but Chat GPT— felt otherwise, for the entire Merrium Webster website had been processed by its big AI brain.

An em dash can also indicate an interruption in speech or a hesitation. For example:

“Of course you have a point,” Tessa mused. “That is—I suppose it does look like I just pasted this entire article from Chat GPT.”

My personal favourite, is using a pair of em dashes in place of commas or parentheses to make snarky remarks mid-sentence. For example:

After reviewing the edit—which was clearly written by an AI with minimal I—it was apparent the article wasn’t going live anytime soon.

The em dash is also the punctuation of choice when referencing a source at the end of a quoted passage. For example:

“Give me back my em dashes!” — Tessa McMahon, quoted right now.

Spaces around an em dash

The em dash is typically used without spaces on either side, and that is the style used in this guide. However, most newspapers set the em dash off with a single space on each side.

Thanks to The Punctuation Guide for this one.

En dashes— why bother?

If tapping the hyphen key twice is too much for you, then don’t even bother with the N length en dash. Barely rendering on most typefaces, the humble hyphen will suffice. However, I will say that it makes me endlessly giddy when someone does format their opening times with a real line en dash.

For the record, this is an en dash, and it should be used in place of ‘up to and including. For example:

You’ll find more information about hyphens on sentences 128–34 of this article.

Use a hyphen (and get over it?)

No, use your em dash! Except when actually hyphenating something, like linking compound words, stuttering,  spelling out a word, or all the other times you are supposed to use a hyphen. And I suppose also when replacing ‘up to and including’ if you can’t be bothered to paste an en dash.

Whatever!

*I will concede that on most keyboards you can just tap the hyphen twice to make an em dash, but not all software allows you to do it ;)