LinkedIn is filled with people complaining about people writing their content with AI and how inauthentic it might be.
As a result, copywriters, marketers and business people are scrambling on a daily basis to replace it with everything from the short dash to colons to full stops.
But…is it the right thing to do? Are we actually eradicating one of the most powerful tools for clarity, rhythm, and drama in language?
Today is #NationalPunctuationDay, so it feels apt that we use today to educate people about the mighty M-Dash and why we shouldn’t be relegating it to the language and grammar bin just yet.
What is the M-dash?
The M-dash (—) is a long line used in writing. It is called an “m-dash” because it is about the same width as the letter M. Writers will use it to create a pause or to show an interruption in a sentence.
Think of it as a stronger pause than a comma, but not as final as a full stop. It’s like when you stop mid-sentence to add a thought, then keep going.
For example: I was going to the park—before it started raining, that is.
I remember former editor of the Sunday World Jim McDowell using them a lot in his writing, this is where I really became acquainted with them.
I remember him hammering at his keyboard and I remember the sound of the two dashes being used, I also remember at the time being really quite inspired by how heavy handed he was on his keyboard.
Whilst the sensible part of me now understands that it was probably a legacy of having used typewriters in the past or something like that, back then it signified a passion for his work, one I believe I learned from watching people like him work.
How is the M-Dash used?
There are three main ways we use the M-dash in writing:
- To add extra information: She finally arrived—two hours late.
- To show a sudden change in thought: I can’t believe it—did you see that?
- To replace brackets or commas for emphasis: My brother—who never cooks—made dinner last night.
And where did it come from?
The m-dash comes from the printing world hundreds of years ago. When printers used big metal blocks for each letter, they needed a long dash that was the same width as an M to make the spacing work neatly. That’s how it got its name.
Over time, writers started using it more and more because it’s handy for making sentences sound the way people actually speak, with pauses and interruptions.
Why many AI models use the em dash a lot
The m-dash isn’t just some quirky accident of AI writing, it’s not just the AI model getting excited because it learned “a thing”.
When you look at the materials these models were trained on — from tabloid newspapers and headlines, blog posts and online content to training information and academic writing. It’s designed to try and give things a slightly more conversational tone.
I’ve used the m-dash all my writing life, granted I’m a lazy writer and I couldn’t be bothered learning how to type it, I would just use a normal hyphen 😬 and now I find myself pausing my writing to decide whether or not to keep it in (as the lazy hyphen) or not.
I asked ChatGPT why it uses it a lot…it said: “When AI is trying to stitch together sentences one token at a time, the em dash is a lifesaver: it’s a flexible pause that lets the model tack on a clarification, change direction mid-thought, or inject a bit of drama without breaking the flow. In other words, the em dash is doing exactly what it was designed to do — keeping writing moving, natural, and human.”
Where did AI get the m-dash from?
It shows up constantly in the training data
Large models learn from mountains of public web text, blogs, news sites, and tech writing where the em dash is fashionable for conversational flow, quick asides, and dramatic pauses. If the corpus leans American, the effect is even stronger because many US outlets prefer it.
It is a cheap way to keep sentences coherent
The em dash lets a model bolt a clarification, contrast, or afterthought onto an ongoing sentence without re-planning the whole structure. When a model is predicting one token at a time, a flexible punctuation mark that “rescues” a sentence mid-flight is attractive.
It mimics a chatty, authorial voice
Instruction and RLHF data often reward answers that feel friendly and human. Em dashes read like a spoken pause, so the model learns they are a safe default for “natural” tone.
Prompt templates and examples reinforce it
Many publicly shared prompts, documentation pages, and AI-written examples already use it frequently. Models imitate those exemplars, so the habit loops.
Tokenisation convenience
Modern tokenisers treat punctuation as distinct tokens. The em dash gives the model a neat, high-probability token that signals “insert a rhetorical pause here” without juggling commas, semicolons, or new clauses.
Where the precedence likely came from
And of course the training data it had would have created a precedence. For example:
- Digital journalism and blogs of the 2000s–2020s that favoured punchy, conversational style.
- American style guides and newsroom house styles that allow or encourage frequent em dash use for asides.
- Marketing and tech copy aiming for pace and personality. Put simply: the open web normalised it, so the model did too.
Why are people pushing back?
The backlash against the m-dash isn’t really about punctuation – it’s about perception…
It’s about the growing fear among writers, marketers, academics and thought leaders that if they use an m-dash people won’t believe they’ve put the work in themselves.
It’s this idea of “cheating”, how on earth can I be taken seriously if people think I didn’t write the stuff myself.
For years I’ve been a ghost writer, writing copy for some of the most well known (and powerful) people across the business and political landscape here in Northern Ireland. Most of it – no one knew or knows…that’s what a ghost writer is.
Never once did any of those people get accused of being inauthentic, or cheating or whatever else comes with the use of the m-dash.
And of course, moaning about the m-dash allows people to stand on a soapbox and claim they are “better” than others – with LinkedIn being the gross cesspit for most of this narrative.
It’s all about appearances. The people complaining about the m-dash believe everything from it being sloppy and casual to overly dramatic. They want you to know they’re a serious writer you see…they don’t need shortcuts and interrupted thought in their sentences…🙄
Then there’s the matter of their ego, they don’t like the fact that people will make judgement on their content based on the grammar they use. God forbid we remind them people were doing this long before this conversation and the only difference now is that people are honest about it.
Rejecting the m-dash has now becomes a way of setting themselves apart from the masses, of proving they’re above the habits of tabloids, bloggers or machines.
I remember as a young journalist being made to feel like working for the tabloids made me “less than” the broadsheets. Made me a “less capable” writer. People couldn’t understand I had to work harder to learn how to write in a tabloid style than I did in any other style I’ve ever written in. They say it’s one of the hardest styles of writing to learn, with sports journalism being even harder…goodness – don’t tell the meandering, descriptive writers of the broadsheets this, they’re ego won’t be able to handle it.
If you must get rid of it…
If you really think you need to get rid of the might m-dash from your life there are plenty of other ways to keep your sentences flowing without it.
None of these substitutes carry quite the same punch, but they’ll help you avoid repetition and keep your writing varied.
Think of them as tools in the same kit – each with its own job, each shaping rhythm and emphasis differently.
- Prefer full stops to break ideas cleanly.
- Use colons to introduce explanations or lists.
- Use commas for short non-essential asides.
- Use brackets sparingly when the aside truly is parenthetical.
- Vary sentence length so rhythm does not rely on a single punctuation trick.
- Add a style check: search and replace to cap em dashes at zero or one per article.
Why do the tabloids love an m-dash?
1. It Creates Drama and Speed
Tabloids thrive on urgency, shock, and a sense of “you must keep reading.” The m-dash lets a writer:
- Interrupt a sentence suddenly for dramatic effect.
- Bolt on a new twist mid-thought.
- Mimic the rhythm of speech in a way that feels breathless and immediate.
Example: “Neighbours said they heard a scream—then silence.” This reads faster and more dramatically than using commas or a colon.
2. It Replaces Clunky Grammar
Tabloid writers want impact, not precision. The em dash avoids the formality of colons, semicolons, or parentheses. It’s quick, flexible, and keeps the sentence moving without stopping to set up a more formal structure.
It’s a shortcut that editors accept because the goal is pace and punch, not grammatical neatness.
3. It Fits the Conversational, Gossip-Like Tone
Tabloids often write in a style that mimics how people talk: jumps, interruptions, sudden asides. The em dash mirrors this rhythm perfectly. It signals a pause or change of thought the way a spoken voice would.
4. Tradition and Influence
British tabloids especially set the trend for certain stylistic quirks. Over decades, their constant use of the em dash in headlines and body copy reinforced the idea that it’s “tabloid-y.” Journalists trained in that environment picked it up as second nature.
5. Visual Impact in Tight Layouts
On narrow columns or tight page space, the em dash can do the work of multiple punctuation marks. It’s clean, bold, and visually breaks text without adding clutter. That makes it practical for the way tabloids are designed.
And, in academia?
While you won’t see the m-dash scattered through every research paper, academics use it carefully to bring clarity to dense, complex sentences.
Sometimes a long technical argument needs a pause — not a full stop, not another comma — but a mark that signals: “pay attention, here’s the crucial point.”
Think of a line like this: The data supported the hypothesis—the results were significant at p < 0.05.
The dash holds the reader for a moment and makes the emphasis unmistakable. In other contexts, where parentheses might bury the detail or a semicolon might feel too stiff, the em dash offers an elegant middle ground. It’s readable, it’s clear, and it makes the flow of ideas easier to follow.
Hard science journals tend to keep it to a minimum, preferring commas, colons or brackets. But wherever it appears, the m-dash plays the same role: a tool for precision, rhythm, and emphasis in language that could otherwise feel heavy or impenetrable.
Even in the world of academia, the m-dash matters. It gives writers a way to draw attention to what really counts, to cut through the thicket of clauses, and to keep their writing engaging without losing rigour. Used wisely, it’s not a crutch — it’s a mark of clarity.
AI didn’t ruin the em dash — ego and fear did
At the heart of all this isn’t really grammar — it’s fear, ego, and posturing.
People aren’t pushing back against the m-dash because it makes writing worse, they’re pushing back because they’re afraid of being judged, of being lumped in with AI, of losing the illusion of superiority. And that’s the part that frustrates me most.
We’ve turned a simple line on a page into a moral judgement, when in reality it’s just another tool for making words work harder.
My last word?
I don’t think I’ll ever stop using the m-dash, or using a hyphen instead due to laziness and habit. But what I will do is continue to call out the snobbery and Luddite opinions of the LinkedIn complainers.
We need to stop this horrific negativity that makes people who NEED AI afraid to use it. This cringeworthy condescension from the worthy wordsmiths just pisses me off.
I don’t find AI written copy hard to read, I find the unnecessary and physically painful to read posts about how awful AI copy is hard to read.
What next?
If you’re ready to cut through the noise and get clear on how to integrate AI into your daily workflow book a 1-2-1 session and I’ll tailor it to exactly what you need or check out our website for the next AI Bootcamp.
👉 email [email protected]