Taking Back the Em Dash

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The em dash is a dynamic typographic mark that has been a favorite tool since my days in design school. Learning how and when to use it correctly is an important piece of aesthetic structure. Somewhere in the last few years, we let a punctuation mark get canceled by association. The em dash — one of the most versatile, elegant tools in the typographic toolkit — has been quietly exiled from use because it’s become a symbol for “this was written by ChatGPT.” As a creative director, I think it’s time we stopped letting algorithmic pattern recognition dictate our craft.

Long before large language models existed, the em dash was in the hands of writers and designers who understood rhythm. It creates a pause with weight — more dramatic than a comma, less formal than a colon, less final than a period. It lets you pivot a thought, or give emphasis exactly where you want it. Emily Dickinson built an entire poetic voice around it. Copywriters have used it for decades to create drama and pacing in headlines and body copy. Designers can lean on it for visual breathing room in dense layouts.

AI models were trained on huge volumes of text where the em dash was already overused. And then they overused it further. Applying an em dash reflexively instead of with intention is the issue. This doesn’t create rhythm, it creates noise. This pattern in AI-generated copy quickly became recognizable and stigmatized. We’re not reacting to the punctuation mark itself, we’re reacting to lazy use of it. The fix isn’t to abandon the tool, it is to use the em dash in the way we always should have: sparingly, purposefully, and with an ear for rhythm.

What good em dash usage looks like:

• One or two per page, not per paragraph. If every third sentence has one, it stops being emphasis and starts being a crutch.
• Use it to interrupt, not to connect everything. Save it for a genuine pivot — not as a default replacement for commas, colons, or periods.
• Read it aloud. If the pause doesn’t feel natural when you speak it, cut it.
• Vary your punctuation. Keep it interesting and thoughtful.

If you’re using AI to draft or assist with copy, adjust your prompts to keep this in check. Instructing a model to limit or avoid em dashes, or to vary its punctuation and sentence structure, generally works well and can keep AI-assisted drafts from falling into that trap.

As a creative, my job is to make deliberate choices about type, color, rhythm, and words. When we start editing our instincts based on whether it looks like AI wrote or if it’s the right choice for this piece, we’ve relinquished our decision-making. The em dash didn’t do anything wrong. It got caught in the crossfire of a bigger conversation about authenticity. It’s an easy, visible scapegoat because it’s visible.

Let’s take it back, use it well, and only enough that it still means something. A thoughtfully placed pause is worth saving.