AILSA CHANG, HOST:
If you're reading something that was generated by AI, there may be signs. A chatbot might delve into or conceptualize or leverage a topic or overuse adjectives and transition words that humans rarely actually write. And it might set them off with the elongated hyphen known as the em dash.
SUSAN LOVETT: It's like it's the only piece of punctuation they've learned other than a period. It's used way too often and often in nonsensical ways.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Susan Lovett is a writing story coach. At a previous job, her co-workers called her the em dash queen.
LOVETT: That dramatic pause, it allows a voice to breathe on the page.
CHANG: It is a versatile punctuation mark. I use it a lot. It can act like a comma or a colon or parentheses. It can help emphasize a point or expand an idea. But earlier this year, it came to the attention of internet linguists that AI appears to be deploying it way too much.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIKTOK VIDEO)
MEMES4WRITERS: (As character) I know you used AI to write this.
(As character) No, I didn't. What are you talking about?
(As character) I can tell from all the dashes.
SUMMERS: TikTok user @memes4writers explain the phenomenon. Reddit users have asked, should I stop using the em dash so folks don't think I used AI? And, well, some people have concluded yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "LUXEGEN")
DAISY REED: So basically...
SAPNA RAO: Yeah.
REED: ...Public service announcement - take out...
RAO: Check it.
REED: ...The hyphen.
CHANG: At least that's the advice of LuxeGen, a fashion and lifestyle podcast aimed at Gen Z listeners. It brought the term the ChatGPT hyphen into the mainstream.
SUMMERS: And that prompted months and months of think pieces, newsletters, blog posts and LinkedIn missives because that guidance just does not sit right with some writers, like Susan Lovett.
LOVETT: It doesn't need to be that way if it's used properly.
CHANG: For Lovett and others in the backlash to the backlash to the em dash, the solution isn't to avoid it. It's to reclaim the punctuation mark, to stand up for its correct use.
CARLA ZANONI: To my Gen Z or Gen Alpha compatriots, I would say don't allow technology to dictate what you are going to do with your generation.
SUMMERS: Carla Zanoni is a journalist and media consultant. Her Substack is literally called The Em Dash. Zanoni, who also writes poetry, points out that this is far from the first time that this punctuation mark has been scrutinized.
ZANONI: Emily Dickinson is, like, the O.G. em dash user and has historically, by scholars, by novices, been found confusing and confounding for her use of the em dash.
CHANG: Though Emily Dickinson was unknown in her lifetime, her work makes heavy use of long dashes. And today, she's considered a great poet. Carla Zanoni said she could set an example for all of us.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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