Hi Reader,

Ever since ChatGPT was thrust into our world, em dashes have been copping a lot of heat as a sure sign of robot writing.

They’ve also been copping a lot of love, as writers everywhere declare their allegiance to the extra-long dash, determined to save it from robot ruin.

I’ll confess, I’m not all that taken with em dashes. But not because I think they’re a sign of ChatGPT generated text. I just think they look kind of excessive!

Nevertheless, I have no issue with embracing the em when a writer insists on it. We all have our punctuation pet peeves and preferences, and I’m only too happy to indulge yours!

So, is the em dash a sign of AI interference? Not really. The truth is, ChatGPT and other LLMs do seem to love an em dash, but their existence in a piece of writing is not the dead giveaway some claim it to be.

Seeing as there’s so much confusion out there about the em dash, I reckon it’s time to clear a few things up …

• They’re named ‘em dashes’ because back in the old days of typesetting, the line was the width of the letter ‘m’.

• They’re not the only kind of dash available. In Australian and UK publishing, we tend to use the shorter en dash (the width of the letter ‘n’). The em dash is standard in the land that loves everything bigger: America!

• Em dashes are often ‘closed’ (without spaces on either side), like—this. But they can also be left ‘open’, like — this. (To me, this is the punctuation equivalent of a smoky eye and a red lip. Waaaay too over-the-top.)

• En dashes, on the other hand, are used with spaces, or ‘open’, like – this. (So minimal, so elegant, no?)

• Neither of these dashes is the same as a hyphen, which is a short line like this -
  Hyphens can be used in many ways, but please, for the love of libraries, never as a dash.

• The use of em dashes alone is not a sign that ChatGPT has written a piece of writing, and publishers know this, so please don’t worry about deleting them, or worse, replacing them with hyphens (shudder). What does send up red flags, in my opinion? Inconsistent use of em dashes. For instance, a piece of writing that uses both closed em dashes and open em dashes, or both em and en dashes; ChatGPT and the like can be pretty bad at consistency, and those who don’t understand the difference between hyphens, en dashes and em dashes simply don’t know to clean it up.

• One of my favourite uses of the em dash, which applies regardless of your regional style/preference, is to indicate broken-off dialogue.
  For example: ‘Hey, why don’t yo—’

• If a dash falls at the end of a sentence you don’t need terminal punctuation after it.
  For example, please don’t ever write: ‘Why don’t yo—.’

• If you’re a smug Mac user like me, please enjoy these shortcuts:
  En dash: Option + hyphen key [-]
  Em dash: Option + Shift + hyphen key [-]

And for more on how to use em and en dashes like a human, head here.

So, are you team en or em? Lemme know!

Penny