alt.hn

8/24/2026 at 6:15:12 PM

Em Dash Is Fine – It Is AI That Sucks

 https://blog.torh.net/2026/08/24/em-dash-is-fine-it-is-ai-that-sucks/

by speckx

8/25/2026 at 1:16:01 AM

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 is 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 an em-dash to mimic how they would say something verbally, the dramatic pause into the punchline of the sentence pattern (personal opinion) sucks.

by FriedFishes

8/25/2026 at 12:20:49 AM

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

by schopra909

8/25/2026 at 1:45:51 AM

Probably a stupid question, but what is your mechanical process? that is, how do you make entering a em-dash natural? Personally, I am of the nature that if it does not live on my keyboard I am probably not going to use the character, And I say this as a great aficionado and maintainer of a carefully curated compose key file... That I never use.

Guesses, because I like to guess, replace the dash with an em-dash? map alt+dash? compose-key dash dash dash?(my preferred method), dash dash rewrite rule(now we are getting into science fiction), ligature?

by somat

8/25/2026 at 3:14:23 AM

Use a Mac or iphone? The opt-dash key combo has mapped to em-dash for a long time, and I think you can now just long press the dash key too. The opt key doesn’t scale beyond the hundred or so extra characters it gives space to live on the keyboard, but it sure is a lot better than memorizing Unicode code points, and the rest I can get from the Fn (or Fn-E), which activates a Unicode search panel just about everywhere. I don’t know which Linux toolkits do something similar, and Windows Character Map seems to be somehow even worse than I remember from several decades ago.

by manwe150

8/25/2026 at 3:20:00 AM

Yep on iPhone I just use two dashes —- and it looks like an emdash

by schopra909

8/25/2026 at 2:10:34 AM

LLMs overuse em-dashes and use them in specific ways that are annoying to read. Stringing together clauses unnecessarily, spacing words out instead of using a comma etc.

I don't kind em-dashes in decent human writing, they're pleasant to read.

by Bolwin