Hello morning muffin!
Liza asks:
"This is a bit of a long shot, but I am desperate. I'm repeatedly getting asked to remove the em dash from email copy. By the CEO. To avoid looking like copy is written by AI.
"Its purpose and use is defined in writing guidelines. But I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle here. I refuse to stop using it entirely. Because it genuinely adds so much value to written copy. ARGH!
"How would you approach this? Education? Stubbornness? Or just cave? 😞"
* *
*
OK... <cracks knuckles>... I'm here for you.
You don't have to have a nit-picking CEO to question your em dash choices. Maybe you've seen this sentiment:
"As soon as I see an em dash, I stop reading."
A line
in the sand drawn because AI loves em dashes. Ergo, anything with an em dash must be AI.
That's like saying Batman wears a cape, so anyone in a bath towel is Batman.
* * *
This CEO's real concern probably isn't the em dash itself. It's a worry that
OTHERS might glimpse an em dash and—aha!—accuse you with hot self-righteousness of AI slop. (That last sentence contains an em dash, by the way. Actually, two. Lovingly placed there by me.)
Em dash panic has created a strange new form of reputational self-surveillance. We are treating a normal punctuation mark like contraband, and asking good writers to pre-defend normal writing choices from imaginary accusations. WHAT
ARE WE EVEN DOING.
Anyway. I could really get annoyed about this. (And I will, in a second.) But I'm also practical and I want to help Liza: What do we do?
A few thoughts:
>>> Lead with nodding agreement, then reframe. (Good advice for life,
not just em dashes.) Something like:
"Listen, boss. You're right that AI often overuses the em dash. And I understand the concern that people may now associate it with AI. But AI also overuses bullet points, punchy one-liners, raccoons-in-trench-coat metaphors, goblins, and words like quietly and delve and it's not-x-it's-y.
"So the fix
isn't singling out punctuation and executing it at dawn. The long-term fix is using our tools with enough judgment that the copy is unmistakably ours."
That shifts the conversation...
From: "Ban the em dash!"
To: "How do we make our writing feel intentional, specific, human, warm, and only ours?"
And it signals something important: You do think about this. You are not using punctuation by accident.
>>> Show, not tell. (Also good advice for life; are you writing these down?) Pull a few examples where your em dash is doing its job. Ones you love, where it's creating pace, emphasis, contrast, surprise, a human little turn of thought.
Then pull a few examples of AI-sloppified em dash installations, where the dash feels lazy or overdone. Line them up, side by side. Help your CEO see the difference.
Don't point out merely that a sentence has an em dash. Point out why the em dash earns its place, and how and why you can't imagine any other punctuation there without completely ruining the flow, meaning, or drama of a
sentence.
An em dash doing its rightful job:
"There are many em dashes in this book—too many to count, although you're welcome to try—each one handcrafted and tenderly set in place."
The two dashes create a quick, self-contained aside—a little wink to the reader
before the sentence resumes. It has pace. It sounds like a person having a thought in real-time.
P.S. That sentence may be part of the dedication of my new book. Should I actually dedicate it to the em dash? Hit reply and let me know.
An em dash doing someone else's job:
"There are many em dashes in this book—each one serving as a powerful tool for emphasis, clarity, and flat-out drama."
Here, the em dash is just a runway straight into the ocean. Nothing turns. Nothing interrupts. Nothing is revealed. The words after the dash simply continue in the same-same direction. A comma would do the same job:
"There are many em dashes in this book, each one serving as a powerful tool for emphasis, clarity, and emotional resonance."
The differences are subtle but real. Here's the two-second test I use:
