Did you ever copy the content produced by your AI tool, only to realize that the text sounds fine but does not sound like something you would write? It happens all the time, especially when one punctuation mark can affect your work in many ways.
This punctuation mark is known as the em dash, which you will find everywhere in the AI-written content. When used correctly, the em dash is a powerful punctuation mark. However, when used too much, it starts to rob your text of its human touch.
Thankfully, there is a simple way to solve the problem once you recognize its cause. You should know what makes the AI tool use the em dash so much, allowing you to fix the issue easily.
You Are Seeing the Reflection of Training Data Patterns
All AI programs learn from the vast amount of publications available to them. These are all sorts of articles, research papers, essays, news items, and wherever there are em dashes, AI recognizes them as stylish writing.
Seeing how em dashes always go hand in hand with high-quality writing, the AI then applies this rule to its own writing. The program recognizes that using em dashes looks sophisticated, although it fails to realize their necessity.
A good way to solve this problem is a dash check after you write your piece. This is actually one of the first things a good AI detector flags. It checks for the overuse of dashes and flags it as written by a machine learning algorithm.
To fix it, look up all dashes used and consider whether commas or periods or another way of constructing the sentences would serve the same purpose.
You Notice It Because AI Avoids Comma Splices
The overuse of em dashes in AI text is because of it is grammatically correct. The texts used by AI algorithms to be trained contain professional edits. One such error is a comma splice when two complete ideas are joined with a comma.
To eliminate this error, the AI text often uses the em dash. This gives it an opportunity to join two complete ideas and yet observe grammatical rules without splitting the sentence into several parts. The sentence will thus appear correct.
However, human writers have the option of using a semicolon in such instances, splitting ideas into sentences and violating grammatical rules to achieve certain effects. AI writers do not have such opportunities.
When editing such text, you should consider pausing at each occurrence of an em dash. You will then have to check if it joins two ideas that can stand alone. In such cases, it is best to use a full stop.
You Are Dealing with AI’s Tendency to Over-Explain Everything
AI strives to be useful, and being useful means over-explaining all the time. While human writers may end their sentences feeling satisfied with themselves, AI will always find a reason to add some more info to make the point even clearer.
In this case, the dash can be extremely convenient as it allows AI to append one thought to another within the same sentence. The text stays coherent, yet it might get unnecessarily long.
Human writers learn over time how to distinguish when it’s enough to stop elaborating on an idea. When something sounds good and comprehensive, you leave your readers with this sentence. In AI’s case, that understanding comes later with editing.
If a clause after the dash merely restates what was said in the first part of the sentence or slightly expounds on the idea already stated, simply delete this clause.
You Can See AI Using the Dash as a Fake Dramatic Pause
AI tends to have its own kind of pattern that it uses, particularly in longer works of writing. For example, it tends to set something up with a few words and then insert an em dash before delivering a point or conclusion. The result may feel pretty exciting at first glance.
This is where problems begin, though. When that kind of rhythm is used over and over again throughout a single piece of writing, the dash is no longer effective in proving a point.
Unlike humans who write, who use varying sentence structures, lengths, and punctuation to generate dramatic pauses, AI tends to stick to certain rhythms. That means it ends up overusing dashes to build emphasis and drama.
You Are Watching AI Confuse Formality with Good Style
One of the things that AI tends to believe is that formal writing must be great writing. In learning stages, the AI recognizes the usage of em dashes in academic papers, literary works, quality journalism, and many other forms of writing which are considered reputable.
And thus the following situation arises. Even the most common subjects can suddenly acquire an exaggerated tone or become elevated above reality. What was supposed to be a normal product description might end up sounding like a magazine piece, and a straightforward help article would sound way too formal.
But as all people know, good writing does not necessarily mean formal writing. On occasion, the best form of writing is not formal at all; on occasion, the best form of writing is conversational.
The easiest solution to this problem would be recognizing your audience and remembering that you should write to them in a manner that would fit them best.
You Are Noticing That AI Doesn’t Trust Its Own Sentences
A curious pattern arises if you analyze the writing style of artificial intelligence carefully. The author often expresses an opinion in one way, but repeats it in a slightly altered form right after the em dash.
For instance, AI may use such descriptors as simple, effective, or powerful, and follow them up with a new clause that says the same thing. It is likely that the latter does not actually provide much more additional information.
The reason for this is simple: while humans try to write in a way that conveys confidence, artificial intelligence prioritizes completeness of thought. In other words, its goal is to cover as many points as possible.
Humans, on the contrary, tend to be confident about what they’re saying. Thus, when making a statement, they leave it without any further elaboration if it is appropriate.
You Can Feel That AI Overuses the Interruptive Function
An em dash can break up a sentence or provide a comment. It can give a powerful finish. Humans employ all these methods, but they tend to do so selectively so that there is a natural flow and balance.
Not so with artificial intelligence. It seems to rely heavily on the break technique, often repeating it throughout paragraphs. This gives a speedy, powerful rhythm which is exhilarating at first but soon wears out after a while.
Every reader longs for variety. They desire a mixture of short and long sentences, calm and emphatic statements, and the need for emphasis from time to time. When everything sounds dramatic, the effect diminishes.
A good way to begin is by revising your introduction and conclusion. Just replace the initial em dashes with full stops and observe the power, confidence, and poise in the rewritten copy.
You Notice the Dash Where a Better Conjunction Would Live
Another way that AI can misuse the em dash is by using it in places where a connecting word would be much more appropriate. Rather than using because, although, therefore, or so, the AI will put in an em dash and leave it up to the reader to figure out the connection.
This might be okay in some creative pieces where intrigue is important, but in educational or persuasive writing, that could be a problem.
The sentence will seem very elegant, but the reader may not be sure whether the clause following the em dash shows causation, a consequence, an opposite, or just another idea.
It is probably more likely that human authors would be explicit in their connections to build credibility. While editing, it is always wise to stop at each em dash and decide if the connection would be better with a different word.
You Are Seeing the Habit Stuck Into the Model’s Output Style
Large language models create output habits. This phenomenon is characterized by recurring patterns independent of the topic, intended audience, or desired writing outcome. The em dash is perhaps the clearest example of such habit formation.
The same punctuation structure may be evident in an email message, a blog post, a product description, or a fiction piece. In the case of AI, the use of the em dash is not necessarily based on topic. It is simply the way the model structures its sentences by default.
Humans tend to adapt writing style to suit different genres, audiences, writing purposes, and responses received from readers. AI will generally not adjust as effectively.
This gives you the opportunity to make editing more efficient by creating your own em dash strategy and reducing its appearance per article.
You Can Fix It Systematically with a Few Rewriting Rules
The purpose is not to ban the use of the em dash for eternity. If used well, the em dash serves the purpose of creating effective emphasis or rhythm. The objective here is to bring its usage back to its natural balance point.
Begin with analyzing all the dashes at the ends of the sentences. Consider removing each one from the text and replacing it with either a full stop, a comma, or a colon. You will likely notice the improved readability of the sentence.
When dealing with em dashes used mid-sentence, consider what alternatives you could use instead to achieve the same effect. Perhaps you should have used commas or parentheses rather than the em dash?
Finally, the ear is your best tool in this editing job. Read your texts aloud and make sure the rhythm feels right. Soon enough, you will notice unnecessary em dash pauses without even trying.
Final Thoughts
At this point, you should have understood that the em dash is more than just a mere punctuation style. Instead, it shows the AI’s training data, tendency to avoid grammar issues, and over-explanation.
None of these features makes the em dash a bad choice for writing. However, using the punctuation mark too much may end up making all your sentences sound like AI-generated writing.
There is an easy way around this. Simply conduct an audit of the dashes you use in your text before submitting it, to make it look more human. Read your draft out loud and figure out if each dash is necessary. From that point on, your writing will sound far more personal.