flâneur

AI Can Pry the EM Dash Out of My Cold, Dead Hands

neboagency.com · 1,132 words · saved by 1 readers

The em dash didn’t suddenly become an AI tell — and ditching it won’t make your writing better. This is why humans, not punctuation, set great writing apart.

AI Can Pry the EM Dash Out of My Cold, Dead Hands AI Can Pry the EM Dash Out of My Cold, Dead Hands The em dash. Odds are you’ve heard of it — and maybe you’re offended by the way I just used it. You wouldn’t be alone. In 2026, the em dash has become a symbol of AI slop. A red flag that something was written by a machine and not a human. Suddenly, everyone has an opinion on this punctuation mark. Most of those opinions are: stop using it. And I’m here to say: over my dead body. I’m a professional writer and I refuse to give up the em dash — and you should too. Here’s why. The Great Em Dash Sca

related reading