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> On the plus side, I guess we can thank AI for bringing back the humble em-dash. It was always there, and used. It was just typically restricted to pretty for
by palmotea 11mo ago
> On the plus side, I guess we can thank AI for bringing back the humble em-dash.
It was always there, and used. It was just typically restricted to pretty formal, polished writing (I should know, I have coworkers who fuss over em and en spaces). I bet if you looked, you'd find regular use of em-dashes in Newsweek articles, going back decades.
The things LLMs did was inject it into unsophisticated writing. It's really only an LLM tell if it's overused or used in an unexpected context (e.g. an 8th-grader's essay, an email message).
- ghaff 11mo agoI always found it a bit amusing how we have three kinds of dashes/hyphens while we have double quotes that serve 3 or 4 different purposes :-)
- ghaff 11mo agoI mostly just use a double hyphen in casual/lazy writing like emails (or HN comments :-)) but use an em-dash in anything more formal. En-dashes just seem pedantic and I don't really use them in general.
- robocat 11mo agoI suspect em-dashes are particularly American. I tend to insert space before and after on the very rare occasion I might use one . . . However I'm from the colonies and I've just learnt my preference is likely due to British influence.
- tensor 11mo agoYes, there were always common in academic writing and such, but you rarely saw them in casual text.